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FOREST-NL

Netherlands Fiber-based Optical netwoRk for European Science and Technology

FOREST-NL addresses the need by Dutch science, society and industry for positioning, navigation and timing services that provide a more accurate and reliable alternative to global navigation satellite systems. It does so by upgrading existing fiber-optic network infrastructure with technology that turns the network into an extremely precise virtual atomic clock, which can be made available to a wide variety of users via network terminals. FOREST-NL is expected to facilitate improved radio astronomy, quantum Internet, searches for new particles and forces of nature, accurate positioning via mobile networks, and very precise height measurements based on Einstein’s gravitational redshift.

Website FOREST

Infrastructure and User Services

FOREST-NL will be based on the SURF Time&Frequency Network, which will initially serve 15 nodes in the Netherlands. It will also connect with the European GÉANT Core-Time and Frequency Network (C-TFN) at Science Park Amsterdam, the portal to the proposed European FOREST ESFRI.

FOREST-NL envisages a phased realization of the research infrastructure: Development of the national fiber-optic infrastructure, based on SURF, offering (virtual) network access to national atomic time sources at VSL and internationally via FOREST. Formation of a lean operational organization which:

  • Handles access requests by users.
  • Participates in (the design of) cross-disciplinary research campaigns that make use of FOREST-NL.
  • Helps collect and make available FOREST-NL data for (future) scientific use.
  • Provides support for R&D in knowledge institutes towards advanced applications of FOREST-NL.
  • Safeguards knowledge and expertise of strategic economic and geopolitical importance to the Netherlands.

FOREST-NL will connect to atomic time sources located at VSL Delft and in Amsterdam. Depending on the application, FOREST-NL will provide users with:

  1. So-called White Rabbit Ethernet signals offering time synchronization with residual errors down to 0.1 nanosecond, and a frequency reference with stability 10-11 Hz/Hz and long-term traceability to the SI second with >14 digits.
  2. An end-user module providing an ultrastable optical frequency reference with <10-14 Hz/Hz stability, and reproducibility in the 18th decimal place.
  3. Virtual clock services, with metrological traceability to UTC(VSL), by performing network comparisons between atomic clocks and realizing the virtual clock from a local clock via post-processing.

Examples/description of the type of research 

Typical examples of users/research areas facilitated by the various FOREST-NL services are, grouped by service type

  1. Radio astronomy distributed antenna arrays;
    Quantum networks; 
    Augmentation systems for accurate positioning and localization; 
    Particle physics experiments; 
    Organizations responsible for international time keeping and time distribution; 
    Space organizations such as ESA-ESTEC; 
    Distributed high-performance computing for scientific research; 
    Ground stations of Earth-space optical communication systems;
  2. Radio astronomy distributed antenna arrays;
    Fundamental physics research (including searches for new particles and forces of nature); 
    Geodesy and levelling based on gravitational redshift; 
    Advanced quantum computing; 
    Organizations responsible for realization and dissemination of the unit of time (the SI second) and dependent units (for example the SI metre) such as national metrology institutes and the International Bureau of Standards and Measures (BIPM); 
    Space organizations such as ESA-ESTEC; 
    Acoustic seismic sensing using optical fiber; 
    Ground stations of Earth-space optical communication systems;
  3. Radio astronomy distributed antenna arrays;
    Quantum networks; 
    Augmentation systems for accurate positioning and localization; 
    Particle physics experiments; 
    Organizations responsible for international time keeping and time distribution; 
    Space organizations such as ESA-ESTEC; 
    Distributed high-performance computing for scientific research; 
    Ground stations of Earth-space optical communication systems;

Access to FOREST-NL is expected to be delivered on-site in most cases via commercially available and remotely monitored user terminals. For specific field applications (e.g. levelling using transportable optical clocks) a ‘last-mile’ solution based on a free-space optical connection may be offered (which first needs to be developed).

Through the connection with FOREST, services may be offered to users elsewhere in Europe, and/or users with an international presence (such as ESA, EUSPA, LOFAR, JIV-ERIC, and multinational network operators).

How to access the infrastructure?

Users (institutes, researchers) will have to arrange access to a SURF PoP location to pick up FOREST-NL signals in collaboration with their host institutions. If institutions are not already connected to SURF, the SURF Time&Frequency Network can be extended on demand (services 1,3). Access to service 2 for advanced research and relativistic geodesy will be limited to dedicated user sites due to the high cost of individual nodes, and established in collaboration with the user. International users can physically (services 1,2) or virtually (3) connect through the international FOREST-NL access point at Amsterdam.

Disciplines

Astronomy, astrophysics Communication science Earth sciences Physics Technology
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