Highly scalable dissemination of traceable time to edge devices by distributed ledgers

通过分布式账本将可追踪时间高度可扩展地传播到边缘设备

• 批准号: 10007112
• 金额: $ 17.8万
• 依托单位: HOPTROFF LONDON LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10007112
• 关键词: Highly; scalable; dissemination; traceable; time

Computer timing is an invisible utility which underpins a very wide range of activities such as getting power into homes operating financial markets the Internet of Things (IoT), health, insurance, transport and even payments systems, including the Central Bank Digital Currency systems being considered by most central banks. Many applications, covering millions of devices, require accurate time which is fully and verifiably traceable back to a source such as the National Physics Laboratory.This highly innovative project will deliver, for the first time, mass distribution of accurate traceable time at very low cost. It will significantly extend NPL's reach, will integrate new more efficient technologies such as traceable hash ledgers and will effectively "democratise" time, making its benefits available to any industry and associated edge devices. Transaction logging and confirmation will be exceptionally fast compared to traditional blockchain and avoids the Proof of Work that is so energy intensive and environmentally damaging.Our dependency on timing cannot be under-estimated, but we are potentially vulnerable, especially to disruptions to the satellite supply of timing signals. In the extreme, according to government sources, the UK economy could be £1 billion a day worse off. Hoptroff has pioneered low-cost networked time synchronisation solution. We are uniquely positioned to create a fallback option for loss of GNSS connectivity all the way to the Edge to increase the resilience and security of Critical National Infrastructure.Our proposed solution is to facilitate access to UTC(NPL) via cloud-deployed software boundary clock software. Each software boundary clock then provides local fanout of time to tens of thousands of edge devices and act together as a distributed hash ledger. The three components that need to be developed and proven are:1. Establishment of traceability to UTC(NPL) via NPL's time dissemination demarcation point at Telehouse, London E14 to Hoptroff's timing network.2. Development of PTP boundary clock & ledger software that disseminates time from local cloud data centres to edge devices. This software will also log communications to edge devices in a hash ledger to immutably record events on the edge devices.3. Development of plug-and-play edge device APIs that securely seek out the time delivery network and synchronize to it, completing the resilient unbroken chain of comparisons from NPL to edge devices. We plan to prove two example APIs (Windows and Linux), with later extension to Web (JavaScript), mobile (Swift/Android) and embedded electronics (C for microcontrollers).

计算机计时是一种无形的公用事业，它支撑着一系列非常广泛的活动，例如将电力引入运营金融市场的家庭，物联网（IoT），健康，保险，运输甚至支付系统，包括大多数中央银行正在考虑的中央银行数字货币系统。覆盖数百万台设备的许多应用都需要精确的时间，这些时间可以完全和可验证地追溯到国家物理实验室这样的来源。这个高度创新的项目将首次以极低的成本提供大规模的精确可追溯时间。它将大大扩展NPL的覆盖范围，将集成新的更高效的技术，如可跟踪的哈希分类账，并将有效地“民主化”时间，使其利益可用于任何行业和相关的边缘设备。与传统区块链相比，交易记录和确认将非常快，并且避免了能源密集型和环境破坏性的工作量证明。我们对时间的依赖不可低估，但我们可能很容易受到影响，特别是对定时信号的卫星供应中断。据政府消息人士称，在极端情况下，英国经济可能每天损失10亿英镑。Hoptroff开创了低成本的网络时间同步解决方案。我们处于独特的位置，可以为GNSS连接的丢失创建一个后备选项，一直到边缘，以提高关键国家基础设施的弹性和安全性。我们提出的解决方案是通过云部署的软件边界时钟软件来促进对UTC（NPL）的访问。然后，每个软件边界时钟向数万个边缘设备提供本地扇出时间，并共同充当分布式哈希分类账。需要开发和证明的三个组成部分是：1。通过位于伦敦E14的Telehouse的NPL时间传播分界点，建立到UTC（NPL）的可追溯性，以连接Hoptroff的计时网络。开发PTP边界时钟和分类账软件，将时间从本地云数据中心传播到边缘设备。该软件还将在哈希分类账中记录与边缘设备的通信，以不可更改地记录边缘设备上的事件。3.开发即插即用的边缘设备API，安全地寻找时间交付网络并与之同步，完成从NPL到边缘设备的弹性连续比较链。我们计划证明两个示例API（Windows和Linux），稍后扩展到Web（JavaScript），移动的（Swift/Android）和嵌入式电子产品（用于微控制器的C）。