North America’s premier timing and sync event offered in a three-session webinar series May 6, 13 and 20, 2020; 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Washington, D.C. — The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) today announced the launch of its Virtual Workshop on Synchronization and Timing Systems (vWSTS) Webinar Series, North America’s leading timesync event. The vWSTS series takes place over three Wednesdays: May 6, May 13 and 20 in place of the highly anticipated WSTS 2020 annual conference.
“During this uncertain and unprecedented time, in spite of postponing North America’s most important face-to-face timing and synchronization event, we will maintain momentum in delivering a series of expert presentations on a topic that is a key enabler for so many industries,” says Marc Weiss, Ph.D., WSTS Chair, Time and Frequency expert consultant. “Our dedicated keynote speakers and world-renowned experts will discuss how technologies in critical sectors — including telecom, electric power, finance and others — increasingly require that more precise and resilient time be made available for their innovative new applications and services.”
The following topics will be covered in three two-hour virtual sessions:
Session 1: 5G and Smart Cities
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Sponsored by Microchip
- Acceleration of the 5G network, convergent with growth in the number of Smart City-related applications requiring synchronization, amplifies the critical need for accurate and reliable timing throughout the network. A broad range of Smart City-related applications will require synchronization including those in the areas of Transportation, the Industrial IoT, and Smart Grid.
- This session addresses the various aspects of synchronization as related to 5G and Smart Cities applications. It identifies the key synchronization implications and requirements of relevant 5G use cases and new architectures. Potential new solutions used to complement traditional GNSS- or PTP-based solutions as well as PNT (Position, Navigation, and Time) Smart City services are presented. Companies and organizations participating include Ericsson, 5G Americas, Calnex Solutions, Microchip Technology, and Turk Telecom.
“Microchip is pleased that ATIS continues to support this important event on timing and synchronization, in the virtual environment,” said Randy Brudzinski, Vice President, Frequency and Timing Systems business unit. “WSTS continues to be the timing and synchronization community’s premier forum for collaboration with leading experts to address the most challenging problems. Microchip timing solutions experts will explore the techniques of providing secure and reliable timing to today’s critical infrastructure and examine the architectural challenges ahead for the synchronization community.”
Click here to view the agenda for Session 1: 5G and Smart Cities and register here.
Session 2: Timing in Finance, Electric Power and Broadcast
Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Sponsored by Calnex
- The Finance, Electric Power and Broadcast sectors are among the many industries that depend on unique timing requirements to drive their success. This session offers expert insight into key timing issues in each of these sectors. All presentations are designed to be of interest to the broader community — beyond their specific market segments.
- The keynote covers the role of timing in the finance marketplace. The chief electrical engineer of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory sheds light on the timing issues of the overall electric power marketplace. Oscilloquartz covers why broadcasters that are looking to migrate from legacy media broadcasting to IP broadcasting need highly reliable and accurate timing for their audio and video content. This cross-sector approach is sure to deliver an eclectic and highly informative discussion. Companies and organizations participating include Microsoft, IBM, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Electric Power Research Institute, Diamond Consulting and Oscilloquartz.
“Precision network timing using technology like PTP and SyncE has been important for years in the telecoms sector but we have seen a growth in focus and in our business in other applications such as datacenters, finance, broadcast and industrial networks,” said Calnex CEO Tommy Cook “We are delighted that ATIS has been able to run WSTS as a virtual event so that the industry leaders can share their experiences and challenges across a wide spectrum of applications. This is a valuable technical forum on the subject and Calnex is proud to be supporting WSTS for the 13th straight year.”
Click here to view the agenda for Session 2: Timing in Finance, Electric Power and Broadcast and register here.
Session 3: Timing Security, Resilience and GNSS Issues
Wednesday, May 20, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Sponsored by Meinberg
- Timing security, also known as “timing assuredness,” is essential for timing as a fundamental enabler across a wide range of industries. Yet timing security faces challenges. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), the primary source for UTC across the world, has significant vulnerabilities. Time is also distributed using dedicated timing networks, other free-space radio signals, optical networks and packet-based networks. Each technique depends on a different infrastructure and each has its own unique vulnerabilities. This vWSTS session covers these problems and the solutions-oriented work that is addressing them.
- It features a keynote from Karen Van Dyke, the Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) director of the Department of Transportation on efforts to provide backup systems to GPS in the U.S. The session explores a new White House Executive Order supporting the importance and vulnerability of PNT. Also addressed are the Department of Transportation’s work to develop standards for an open architecture integrity framework in GPS, as well as timing services based on GNSS. Companies and organizations participating include the Department of Transportation, Internet Society, IS4S, and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt.
“With telecom, finance, power grid, air traffic, and many other industries relying on GNSS for mission-critical operations and increased threats of spoofing, jamming, and other security attacks, the resilience and dependability of time synchronization is a very important area of development,” said Allan Armstrong, CEO of Meinberg USA. “WSTS is an excellent forum for end-users and developers to collaborate and learn from each other about threats and the technologies to avert them.”
Click here to view the agenda for Session 3: Timing Security, Resilience and GNSS Issues and register here.
“The show must go on and this year the vWSTS Webinar Series is the place to learn about advances in timing and synchronization accuracy and the challenges faced from a perspective that is relevant to all industries,” added Weiss.
About ATIS
As a leading technology and solutions development organization, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) brings together the top global ICT companies to advance the industry’s business priorities. ATIS’ 150-member companies are currently working to address 5G, robocall mitigation, IoT, Smart Cities, artificial intelligence-enabled networks, distributed ledger/blockchain technology, cybersecurity, emergency services, quality of service, billing support, operations, and much more. These priorities follow a fast-track development lifecycle – from design and innovation through standards, specifications, requirements, business use cases, software toolkits, open source solutions, and interoperability testing.
ATIS is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ATIS is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a founding Partner of the oneM2M global initiative, a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). For more information, visit www.atis.org. Follow ATIS on Twitter and on LinkedIn.
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