Alternative to GPS
STL (Satellite Time and Location) gives you precise timing synchronization and indoor coverage in areas where GPS doesn't reach.
GPS Challenges for 5G Networks
Governments around the world are calling for critical infrastructure providers, including 5G wireless carriers, to find a GPS/GNSS alternative or backup for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). This is because GPS has limitations that could impact your network’s performance.
GPS signals come from constellations that are 12,000 miles away in space and degrade as they travel. By the time they reach Earth, they are often too weak to penetrate indoors, especially in areas where terrain or buildings block the signal. Weak GPS signals are also an easy target for jamming, spoofing, and other malicious attacks. If you rely solely on GPS for timing, your 5G network or other critical infrastructure may be at risk.
GPS provides an essential service to 5G networks and other critical infrastructure. However, you need a backup timing source to keep your infrastructure up and running if your signals are disrupted.
Speak with an STL ExpertSTL (Satellite Time and Location):
A Proven Alternative or Backup Source of Timing for GPS
Satellite Time and Location (STL) from Satelles provides wireless carriers and other critical infrastructure providers with a reliable, secure, and accurate timing synchronization service. You can use STL as an alternative or backup source of timing for GPS to make your services more resilient.
STL signals come from low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites in the Iridium constellation. Since this constellation is just 485 miles from Earth, STL signals are 1000X stronger than GPS signals and can reach areas where GPS isn’t reliable.
The best part? STL technology is available now.
Speak with an STL Expert
Reliable, Secure, and Available Everywhere
With STL, you can gain peace of mind that your 5G network or other critical infrastructure will function properly in the event of a GPS outage. STL provides the accurate timing synchronization you need to backup GPS.
Since the STL constellation is just 485 miles from Earth, its signals provide service in areas where GPS/GNSS doesn’t reach or isn’t available, such as indoors.
STL is a Stratum 0 UTC source of time and is used to create a Stratum 1 timing clock compliant with the ITU-T G.8272 PRTC-A performance standard.
The complex, overlapping beam patterns of the satellites combined with signal authentication techniques allow Satelles to deliver a trusted time and location capability that is highly secure and thwarts disruption or manipulation.
Customers use STL either as a primary source of PNT — for example, 5G deployments where GPS/GNSS is unavailable indoors or when distributed PTP cannot meet needed accuracies — or as an essential contingency capability to protect the operations of PNT-dependent systems and ensure survivability and resilience.
STL offers the advantage of utilizing a small indoor antenna to deliver timing signals that penetrate most structures, including buildings with low-emissivity (Low-E) windows or metal and concrete siding and roofing. This means that in-building wireless installations that leverage STL can maintain synchronous timing without the need for an outdoor GNSS antenna.
STL antennas can also be installed outdoors similar to GPS/GNSS antennas.
GPS is a source of timing, and PTP is used to distribute that timing to locations that can’t get GPS. STL can be that source of time in areas where GPS doesn’t reach, or as a backup in the case of GPS disruption.
With 5G networks, PTP doesn’t always meet the needed accuracy to get to certain locations because of too much accumulated timing error (loss). This is caused by too many switch and router hops – this is very common especially when the fiber is not owned by the service provider. STL provides the timing source closer to the desired location to mitigate these issues.
Using STL, a PTP EdgeMaster can enable 5G to work deep indoors. Standalone receivers that connect to a wireless operator’s RAN gear or router to replace or augment GPS allow STL to provide timing sync whenever and wherever GPS is unavailable.
Use of the L-band frequency plus strength of signal means STL can take advantage of small form factor antenna and receiver size, making it a low-cost alternative or backup to GPS/GNSS.
Satelles works with solution providers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that engineer user equipment (UE) incorporating STL technology.
Expert Findings
Government authorities in the U.S. and Europe—including The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)—have tested STL. They confirmed that STL meets 5G timing accuracy specifications, provides signals indoors, and offers resilience in the event of a GPS/GNSS outage. See our expert findings.
Protect Your Critical Infrastructure
Explore how STL can help you meet your 5G timing synchronization requirements when GPS is not available.