Data Centers
Timing Synchronization: The Key to Data Center Performance
Today’s data center applications demand ultra-low latency and real-time processing at the network edge. At the heart of this performance is precise timing synchronization:
- Data consistency: In cloud and hybrid environments, database replication must remain consistent. Accurate synchronization ensures data integrity between servers and across data centers, especially for those located wide distances apart.
- Financial services and electronic trading: In high-frequency trading (HFT) like stock markets and other financial applications, sub-100 nanosecond timestamps prove exactly when each transaction occurs and maintain the correct order of trades across cloud-connected data centers.
- Multimedia applications: Video conferencing, streaming, and online gaming need a smooth, uninterrupted experience. Timing synchronization minimizes lag and glitches for reliable, real-time performance.
- Industrial applications: With the rise of private 5G networks in factory settings, controllers and computers require precise timing synchronization to properly sequence tasks.
Available now, Iridium® PNT provides reliable, accurate timing that keeps data centers running at peak performance, no matter what the application.
Common Challenges for Data Center Operators
Even the most sophisticated data centers face serious risks without precise timing synchronization. When timing fails, performance, reliability, and security suffer:
- Network Time Protocol (NTP) often falls short of the accuracy needed for latency-sensitive applications.
- Precision Time Protocol (PTP) improves accuracy, but when extended to distant edge devices, timing errors accumulate.
- GPS/GNSS is difficult to utilize indoors, requiring outdoor antennas that are expensive to install and maintain.
- A backup source of timing is essential—but redundant GPS/GNSS sources are expensive, complex, and still leave data centers vulnerable to outages.
Are these challenges familiar? If so, it’s time to move beyond outdated timing methods. Iridium PNT:
- Delivers accurate timing even when GPS is unreliable, unavailable, or blocked.
- Works indoors without costly, hard-to-install antennas.
- Provides precise synchronization closer to the network edge, where distributed computing processes demand it—unlike PTP, which loses accuracy across multiple network hops.
Iridium PNT Offers Data Centers:
- Reliable timing: Iridium PNT can be used to discipline a primary reference clock (PRC) to help ensure persistent accuracy to UTC.
- Indoor coverage: Iridium PNT enables precise timing synchronization with an indoor antenna, eliminating the cost, complexity, and uncertainty of running cables to rooftop GNSS antennas. This is critical in environments where outdoor installations are impractical or not permitted.
- Interoperability: Iridium PNT works alongside GNSS to continuously monitor timing accuracy. If GNSS is disrupted or compromised, systems can seamlessly fail over to Iridium PNT to maintain precise synchronization. Iridium PNT can also serve as the primary source of time, if needed.
- Security: 1,000 times stronger than GNSS, the Iridium PNT signal also has cryptographic protections. This makes it difficult to disrupt or manipulate and increases the resilience of time-dependent applications.
- Resilience: Redundancy matters—but a second GPS receiver won’t help if GNSS is degraded or denied. Iridium PNT keeps working when GPS fails, delivering unmatched resilience for critical systems.
Iridium PNT Solutions For Data Centers
Available from our trusted partners, Iridium PNT solutions are easy to connect and configure, reliable indoors, and available in multiple form factors for a range of environments.
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