Time Distribution Using SpaceWire in the SCaN Testbed on ISS

Abstract

A paper describes an approach for timekeeping and time transfer among the devices on the CoNNeCT project s SCaN Testbed. It also describes how the clocks may be synchronized with an external time reference; e.g., time tags from the International Space Station (ISS) or RF signals received by a radio (TDRSS time service or GPS). All the units have some sort of counter that is fed by an oscillator at some convenient frequency. The basic problem in timekeeping is relating the counter value to some external time standard such as UTC. With SpaceWire, there are two approaches possible: one is to just use SpaceWire to send a message, and use an external wire for the sync signal. This is much the same as with the RS- 232 messages and l pps line from a GPS receiver. However, SpaceWire has an additional capability that was added to make it easier - it can insert and receive a special "timecode" word in the data stream.