How Atomic Clocks Control Our Transportation Systems
Getting from A to B has been a primary concern for societies since the first roads were built. Whether by horse, carriage, train, automobile, or plane, transportation is what allows societies to grow, prosper, and trade.
In today’s world, our transportation systems are very complex due to the large number of people trying to get somewhere, often at similar times, such as rush hour. Keeping highways, roads and railways running requires sophisticated technology.
Traffic lights, speed cameras, electronic warning signs, and railway signals and point systems all need to be synchronized to ensure safety and efficiency. Any difference in timing between traffic lights, for example, could cause traffic to queue behind certain lights and other roads to remain empty. On railways, if the point systems are being controlled by an inaccurate clock, when the trains arrive, the system may not be ready or may not have changed lines, leading to a catastrophe.
Due to the need for secure, accurate, and reliable time synchronization in our transportation systems, the technology that controls them is often synchronized with UTC using atomic clock time servers.
Most of the time servers that control such systems have to be secure, so they use Network Time Protocol (NTP) and receive a secure time transmission either using atomic clocks on GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites. ) or receiving a radio transmission from a physical system. laboratory such as NPL (National Physical Laboratory) or NIST (National Institute of Standards and Time).
By doing so, all rail and traffic management systems operating on the same network are accurate to each other within a few milliseconds of the time generated by this atomic clock, and the NTP time servers that keep them in sync ensure that they stay that way, making minute settings. to each system clock to deal with drift.
Computer networks also use NTP servers to ensure that all machines are in sync with each other. By using an NTP time server on a network, you reduce the chance of errors and ensure that the system remains secure.