The Mid-Frequency Square Kilometre Array Phase Synchronisation System

TL;DR

This paper details the design, implementation, and testing of the Mid-Frequency SKA phase synchronisation system, demonstrating it exceeds all operational requirements across various challenging conditions.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive practical implementation of the SKA phase synchronisation system with extensive testing results showing superior performance.

Findings

Exceeds 1-second coherence loss requirement by 2560 times

Surpasses 60-second coherence loss requirement by 239 times

Operates reliably across all specified environmental conditions

Abstract

This paper describes the technical details and practical implementation of the Mid-Frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA) phase synchronisation system. Over a four-year period, the system has been tested on metropolitan fibre-optic networks, on long-haul overhead fibre at the South African SKA site, and on existing telescopes in Australia to verify its functional performance. The tests have shown that the system exceed the 1-second SKA coherence loss requirement by a factor 2560, the 60-second coherence loss requirement by a factor of 239, and the 10-minute phase drift requirement by almost five orders-of-magnitude. The paper also reports on tests showing that the system can operate within specification over the all required operating conductions, including maximum fibre link distance, temperature range, temperature gradient, relative humidity, wind speed, seismic resilience, electromagnetic compliance, frequency offset, and other operational requirements.