ADVA launches industry’s first ePRC optical cesium clock solution

04 June 2020 -- ADVA (FSE: ADV) today launched the industry’s first ePRC optical cesium atomic clock solution, protecting synchronization networks from costly and dangerous interruptions to satellite signals. The Oscilloquartz OSA 3350 ePRC+ provides unprecedented stability and significantly longer lifetime compared to all other ePRC cesium clocks. It’s also the first cesium clock on the market with built-in SNMP support. This innovation in the design of atomic clocks comes at a critical time when GNSS outages caused by jamming and spoofing attacks are on the rise. Long GNSS disruptions can cause severe network outages and so the OSA 3350 ePRC+ offers vital backup for mission-critical infrastructures that depend on satellite-based timing, such as mobile networks and power utilities. The OSA 3350 ePRC+ also meets the stringent performance demands as well as the cost points needed for mobile networks transitioning to 5G.

“Our OSA 3350 ePRC+ is a truly unique achievement and its importance to the industry can’t be overstated. It arrives at a crucial time with operators seeking an efficient way to deliver highly accurate, ultra-stable frequency and phase synchronization with significantly longer lifetime than existing cesium clocks. Now they can mitigate GNSS vulnerabilities by harnessing market-leading holdover performance for the most robust backup available,” said Gil Biran, general manager, Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “Creating a viable commercial optical atomic clock has been a key mission for a long time. By achieving it, we’re making sure that communication service providers never again have to compromise between performance and lifetime. And, with a frequency stability that outperforms current ITU-T ePRC G.811.1 standards, our OSA 3350 ePRC+ provides the safety net needed for 5G networks.”

Featuring an all-digital design, the OSA 3350 ePRC+ leverages optical-pumping techniques. It greatly improves performance by providing an extremely stable frequency source. When used with enhanced primary reference time clocks (ePRTCs), the OSA 3350 ePRC+ delivers holdover for 14 days with an accumulated error of up to 35 nanoseconds. This far exceeds the ITU-T ePRC G.811.1 standard that requires an accumulated error under 70 nanoseconds. The OSA 3350 ePRC+ also delivers optimum stability for over 10 years, which is 100% longer than the lifespan of high-performance magnetic cesium clocks. With a fully modular design, the optical cesium solution features a wide range of telecom synchronization output interfaces and supports modern and secured management capabilities with SNMP. What’s more, the RoHS-compliant device is fully integrated into ADVA’s Ensemble management and control software suite for operational simplicity and ease of use.

“With our OSA 3350 ePRC+, we’re providing a critical component of tomorrow’s network synchronization. For decades, engineers have focused on maximizing the performance of magnetic cesium clocks despite their limitations. Now we’re opening up a new chapter in the history of time and frequency delivery with a technology that optimizes both performance and lifetime,” commented Nir Laufer, senior director, product line management, Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “The incredible stability and accuracy that our OSA 3350 ePRC+ generates will bring essential improvements needed for 5G and other critical infrastructures deriving timing from GNSS. At a time when jamming and spoofing attacks are increasing in frequency and duration, it offers vital backup to satellite-based timing. Our OSA 3350 ePRC+ is also fully integrated into our Ensemble network management software suite with built-in SNMP. It couldn’t be easier to monitor the health of the device and perform software upgrades remotely at the touch of the button.”