GPS-Independent Wireless Time Sync Achieves Sub-5 Nanosecond Accuracy
Tags Infrastructure · OSS
NICT (Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology) demonstrated Wi-Wi STAMP, a wireless time synchronization protocol using the 900 MHz band that achieves picosecond-level time sync and mm-level distance accuracy. Current prototypes show 20ps phase synchronization jitter and 30ns time sync, with next-generation targeting under 5ns. Demonstrated at NAB 2026 for wireless broadcast time synchronization.
Technical significance
Sub-5ns wireless time sync enables applications that previously required GPS or wired connections — including distributed sensor networks, 5G coordination, broadcast studio synchronization, and eventually autonomous vehicle platooning. Better indoor signal penetration than GNSS makes this particularly valuable for indoor industrial and research deployments where GPS signals are unreliable.