Beyond GPS: Building Resilient Timing Architectures for Critical Infrastructure

When people think about GPS disruption, they usually think about navigation.

Where is the aircraft? Where is the vessel? Where is the vehicle?

But GPS and wider GNSS systems do far more than provide location. They also provide time. For many critical networks and operational systems, that time signal has become a hidden dependency.

Financial platforms rely on accurate timestamps. Telecoms networks rely on synchronisation between sites. Power systems, data centres, defence environments, transport networks and critical infrastructure all depend on precise, trusted timing to operate correctly.

When GNSS is disrupted, jammed, spoofed or silently degraded, the impact can go far beyond navigation.

The risk is no longer theoretical

GNSS interference is no longer a niche technical issue. It is becoming a real operational and economic risk for the systems that rely on satellite-based positioning, navigation and timing.

A UK Government-commissioned report estimated that a seven-day disruption to GNSS could cost the UK economy £7.64 billion. The same report estimated that the annual economic benefit of GNSS to the UK is £13.62 billion.

More recently, the UK Government stated that a 24-hour outage of satellite navigation services could cost the UK economy £1.4 billion. The same announcement also made clear that PNT services support more than navigation, including timing signals used by mobile phones and stock markets.

The aviation sector is already seeing the impact. EASA and IATA reported that GPS signal loss events increased by 220% between 2021 and 2024, based on IATA flight data.

EASA also notes that since February 2022 there has been a notable increase in GNSS jamming and spoofing, particularly around conflict zones and sensitive areas including the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Middle East, Baltic Sea and the Arctic.

The concern is not just that GNSS can be disrupted. It is that many critical systems depend on GNSS for time, not just location.

That is why GNSS interference should not only be seen as a navigation issue. It should be treated as a timing resilience issue.

Timing is often invisible until something goes wrong

Most organisations do not think about timing every day.

It sits quietly in the background, supporting systems, logs, transactions, audit trails, network operations and service performance. When timing is working, it is rarely noticed. When timing becomes unreliable, the consequences can be serious.

A system may continue to operate, but with timestamps that cannot be trusted. Synchronisation may begin to drift. Audit trails may become harder to evidence. Network performance may degrade. In some environments, the issue may not become obvious until it has already created operational, compliance or resilience risk.

This is why timing resilience needs to be treated as part of infrastructure design, not as an afterthought.

GNSS dependency can create a single point of failure

GNSS has become widely used because it is accurate, accessible and globally available. For many organisations, it has become the default timing source.

But depending on GNSS alone creates a clear risk.

Jamming can block signals entirely. The receiver loses visibility of the satellite signal, and systems that depend on timing may begin to degrade or move into holdover.

Spoofing can be even more concerning. A receiver may continue to operate while accepting a false signal. In that scenario, the system may still appear to be working, but the timing being distributed across the network may no longer be trustworthy.

For sectors such as finance, telecoms, defence, utilities, transport and data centres, that is not just a technical issue. It is a resilience issue.

What resilient timing needs to consider

A resilient timing strategy should be built around practical operational questions:

• What happens if GNSS is jammed?
• What happens if a receiver is spoofed?
• How long can the system remain within tolerance?
• How quickly can timing issues be detected?
• What alternative or backup timing sources are available?
• How is timing performance monitored and evidenced?
• What support is in place if equipment fails?

These questions cannot be answered by product selection alone. They require proper design, validation, monitoring and long-term support.

Resilient timing is not simply about having a time source. It is about knowing whether that time can still be trusted when conditions change.

Where technology like the OSA 5510 fits in

The launch of the Oscilloquartz ruggedSync™ Series OSA 5510 reflects the growing demand for timing systems that can support harsh, high-assurance and mission-critical environments.

For edgeTime, this is important because technology like the OSA 5510 gives us another strong option when designing resilient timing and synchronisation solutions for customers operating in challenging conditions.

As an Elite UK Partner for Oscilloquartz and Adtran, edgeTime has a long-standing relationship with the Oscilloquartz portfolio and has worked closely around the development, deployment and support of timing technologies used across critical environments.

But the value we bring is not simply access to hardware.

Our role is to help customers understand what they need, assess the risks in their existing timing architecture, compare the available technology options and design a solution that is right for their environment.

In some cases, that may involve ruggedised timing hardware such as the OSA 5510. In others, it may involve different suppliers, alternative timing sources, GNSS backup, PTP distribution, SyncE, holdover capability, monitoring, compliance evidence, managed spares, lab validation or a fully managed timing service.

The product matters, but the architecture matters more.

Resilient timing is not solved by one product

GNSS interference, jamming and spoofing are not problems that can be solved properly by simply adding another device into the network.

A resilient timing strategy needs to consider the full picture:

• Where timing comes from
• How timing is distributed
• What happens if GNSS becomes unavailable or untrusted
• How long the system can remain within tolerance
• How timing performance is monitored
• What evidence is available for audit, compliance or assurance
• How the solution is supported over the long term

This is where edgeTime supports customers beyond the equipment itself.

We help organisations build timing solutions around their operational requirements, not around a single supplier or product list. That means looking at the environment, the risk profile, the compliance requirements, the support model and the level of resilience needed before recommending the right approach.

A supplier-agnostic approach to timing resilience

edgeTime works with Oscilloquartz, Adtran and a wider network of specialist technology partners to identify the best solution for each customer requirement.

That supplier-agnostic approach is important. It means we are not limited to one product, one vendor or one way of solving a timing challenge.

Instead, we can design solutions using the technology that best fits the customer’s environment, whether that is a ruggedised timing platform, a resilient grandmaster architecture, alternative timing sources, timing monitoring, GNSS backup, managed support or a wider Timing as a Service model.

For customers, this creates a more practical and resilient outcome. They get a solution designed around their risk, their infrastructure and their operational needs, with edgeTime acting as the partner responsible for helping bring the full solution together.

Can you trust your time when conditions change?

The key question is no longer simply whether an organisation has access to accurate time.

The real question is whether that time can still be trusted when conditions change.

As GNSS interference, spoofing and timing disruption become more visible, organisations need to look carefully at the resilience of their timing architecture. For critical environments, a single unverified source is no longer enough.

Resilient timing means having the right combination of technology, architecture, monitoring, evidence and support.

At edgeTime, we help organisations assess, design, validate and support timing and synchronisation solutions around real-world risk, operational requirements and long-term resilience.

Speak to our team to discuss how resilient timing can support your network, infrastructure or operational environment.