Charles Curry

1
University of Liverpool Lecture to Year 2 and
MSc Students 13th March 2008
Charles Curry B.Eng (Hons), Electronics,
Liverpool 1973, FIET Founder Managing
Director Chronos Technology Ltd
2
Charles Curry - cv..

• Graduated 1973 B.Eng (Hons) 2.2 Electronics.
• 1973 - GEC Hirst Research Centre, Wembley
  Research Engineer
• Research into MOS boundary properties (CCD)
• Ceefax development team
• Met Test Equipment Salesman with a Car
• 1975 - Racal Instruments Sales Engineer,
  Regional Sales Manager
• Test Equipment Manufacturer and Importer
• Invited to join a Client
• 1980 MicroLease Sales Manager
• Test Equipment Rental Services
• Head Hunted
• 1983 - GSE Rentals Managing Director
• Seismic Hydrographic Survey Rental
• Made Redundant
• 1986 Started Chronos
• Global specialist in timing for telecoms
• Professional/Industrial GPS solutions

3
Liverpool University Lets Travel in Time back
to the Early 70s..

• Whats Changed?
• Engineers
• Guild Gazette
• Social Scene
• Bands
• Panto Week
• ESHOCK NEWS
• Computers
• Exams!
• Projects

4
Liverpool - 1972
Some things have not changed!
5
Some things have!!!
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Liverpool Engineers Class of 73
Spot Prof Bill Ecclestone!
Spot Charles Curry!
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Engineers _at_ Liverpool
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Guild Gazette
9
Social Scene
10
Bands
Ten Years After
The Who
Led Zeppelin
The Rolling Stones
11
Panto Week - 1973
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ESHOCK NEWS Issue No 1!
13
Computers IBM 1130, Paper Tape Slide Rules!!
IBM 1130 16 bit binary architecture 32k
RAM Fortran
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Exams! Quantum Theory
15
Exams! Communication Theory
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Projects

• Colour TV
• Dissertation on typewriter
• Crayon colour drawings
• Motivated by summer holiday job fixing colour TVs
• MOS Boundary Layers
• Set me on the path for fisrt job at GEC Hirst
  Research

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GEC Hirst Research Centre 1973-75
Research on MOS Boundary Properties for CCD
Applications Then Early CEEFAX work
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Racal Instruments - 1975-80
Sales of RF Microwave Test Equipment Specialised
in Timing Products
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MicroLease 1980-83
Rental of General Purpose Test Equipment
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GSE Rentals 1983 -1986
Deployed 1st GPS and 1st Laptop PC into North Sea
Oil Industry
Rental of Seismic Survey Equipment
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Chronos by Numbers
Company formed Staff Million Turnover ISO
90012000 SyncWatch Launched Telco Support
Contracts Customers GPS/SSUs installed
Globally Engineers Trained on Sync Timing
1986 35 5 9001 2003 50 1000 2000 1000
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Chronos Technology Ltd
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Timing in Telecoms is about Traffic Speed

• Digital telecom traffic is either bits or packets
  just like cars and buses on the roads
• Telecom industry has been using Active Traffic
  Management for 20 years
• When it goes wrong on the roads we have traffic
  jams
• When it goes wrong in Telecoms we dont allow
  traffic jams!
• We sacrifice data to enable traffic flow!
• Sound and vision traffic compromised
• Loss of data
• Large file resends
• Corrupted data
• Mobile Dropped Calls
• TV Radio compromised
• Speech gaps

24
Product Solutions - Network Synchronisation

• Cs PRC, GPS PRS
• SSUs, Node Clocks
• OCXO Rb Holdover
• Retimers, Distribution
• PTP, NTP
• DOCSIS DTI
• QoS, Testing
• Installation
• Support

• Telecom Networks Core, Access, Edge, Fringe
• National, International, Regional, OLO,
  Utilities, Wireless
• UMTS, GSM, 3G, GSM-R, LTE, TETRA, Wi-Max, Cable,
  DVB
• NGN Services IPTV, VoIP,

25
Once Long Ago..
Life was simple!
SDH
Sync
Network Elements
Now Next Gen Networks complicate the issue..
Traffic Timing
Applications that need Traffic Timing
Ethernet
Time of Day
Applications that need Time of Day
Time Slot Management
Applications that need Time Slot Management
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The Standards Cavalry is Coming!
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GPS Timing Horror Story Headlines

• D-Link accused of 'killing' time server
• http//www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/13/d-link_tim
  e_row_escelates/
• GPS could be terrorist target
• http//archives.cnn.com/2002/US/01/08/ret.gps.terr
  or
• Military accidentally jams GPS
• http//forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtop
  ic160821
• http//mg.gpsworld.com/gpsmg/article/articleDetail
  .jsp?id418420H2
• In-car GPS jammer subverts mobile tracking
  devices
• http//www.engadget.com/2007/07/31/in-car-gps-jamm
  er-subverts-mobile-tracking-devices/
• Solar flare puts GPS off the air
• http//www.gcn.com/print/26_08/43512-1.html

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Customers
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Value Added Services - Turnkey Solutions

• Consultancy
• Site Surveys
• Installation
• Commissioning

• Security Clearance
• Climbing Certification
• Electrical Certification
• Health Safety Awareness

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Research Development

• SyncWatch
• Web Enabled 24x365 Telecom Quality Probe
• 24x365 Telecom Traffic Timing Monitoring
• Text Alerts
• Heartbeats
• www.syncwatch.com
• Symmetricom Global OEM
• Current Projects
• SWRDA Grant Telecom Availability Standards
• Internet Enabled Telemetry Integrity
  Monitoring
• Geolocation Integrity Systems

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Knowledge

• Sync knowledge consultancy product training
  with over 1000 engineers trained on time timing
• Founder Chairman of International Telecom Sync
  Forum (ITSF)
• Member of Steering Group of Workshop on
  Synchronization in Telecommunication Systems
  (WSTS)
• Member of IET Professional Network Steering Group
  Communications
• Member of ITU-T Study Group 15 Question 13
  Synchronisation
• Member of KTN Location Timing Steering Group

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Travel last 15 Months

• Barcelona Sales Conf Symmetricom
• Prague ITSF Chaired conference
• Fort Worth, Texas ION - Delegate
• Boulder, Colorado WSTS - Papers
• Reeuwijk, The Netherlands - Collaboration
• San Jose, California Symmetricom Supplier -
  twice
• Stockholm Won major contract Teracom
• Paris FP7 Grant Consortium Meeting
• Geneva TimeNav07 Papers
• Geneva ITU SG15/Q13 Meeting
• Brussels Bidding Contract

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So What Are you Going to Do?

• Gap Year?
• Gap Year before Uni?
• Have you got a job already?
• Summer Vac work?
• Engineering?
• Not Engineering?
• Teaching?
• No Idea?
• Looking for Inspiration?

34
Explore Some Aspects of My Engineering

• c ???
• Speed of Light
• 3 x 108 km/sec
• 299,792,458 m/sec
• How far does light travel in 1 nsec?
• ms, µs, ns, ps, fs.
• Equations with c?
• cf? or c??
• Emc2

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Telecoms a Science Engineering Mash-up

• Chemistry
• Physics
• Maths
• Biology

• Elements Materials
• Electromagnetism
• Time Time Interval
• Geolocation
• Careers

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Elements Materials
What Elements are in a mobile phone or network?

• Carbon
• Lithium
• Iron
• Gold
• Silver
• Copper
• Tin
• Caesium
• Rubidium
• Quartz
• Silicon
• Gallium
• Arsenic

• Plastic
• Rubber
• LCDs
• LEDs

• New RoHS Directive bans
• Cadmium
• Lead
• Mercury
• Chromium

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Electromagnetism

• fundamental enabling technology
• enables communication
• can be dangerous!
• a little knowledge is dangerous!
• biological impact of signals?
• famous names
• Faraday, Bell, Newton, Watt, Fleming
• Hertz, Ampere, Voltaire
• MHz not Mhz!
• important equation
• c f?
• speed of light frequency x wavelength

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The Electromagnetic Spectrum
c f?
Microwave Oven
Cosmic Rays
Infra Red
Ultra Violet
Radio Waves
Gamma Rays
Microwaves
X-Rays
Visible Light
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The Electromagnetic Spectrum
c f?
Microwave Oven
Cosmic Rays
Infra Red
Ultra Violet
Radio Waves
Gamma Rays
Microwaves
X-Rays
Visible Light
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Time Time Interval

• time
• electronic, electrical mechanical clocks
• atomic clocks, quartz resonators
• fundamental utility
• enables electromagnetic spectrum stability
• enables location positioning
• enables complex communications
• time interval
• rate of change of time
• enables definition of frequency stability
• can be measured very accurately psec
• important equation
• ?fTIE/t
• frequency error time interval error/time

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Atomic Clocks Cs Rb

• Cs more accurate than Rb
• Cs 9,192,631,770 GHz
• Rb 6,384,682,612.8 GHz
• Cs Accurate to parts in 10-12

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Dont Try This at Home
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Accurate Clocks
Harrison
Caesium Atomic Clock
Strontium Ion Clock
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Geolocation
?
?
?
?
Now its possible to know what time it is and
where you are!
?
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Recognising Future Engineers

• insecure
• need to know how things work
• short attention span
• to anything not interesting to us
• like to play with new toys
• loners
• nerdy
• rush things
• poor spellers

• we build things
• we break things!
• we are resourceful
• we enjoy arithmetic
• we make things work
• we are practical
• we are pragmatic
• we take the lid off
• we dont read instructions!

• we dont enjoy biology
• we dont enjoy chemistry
• we cant spell ingineer
• we dont suffer fools gladly
• we dont like pointless activities
• we cant be told what to do!

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Careers for Future Engineers

• electronics
• computers
• communications
• software/firmware
• electrical
• civil
• structural
• mechanical

The Romans were great engineers What if they
had discovered electricity .?
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Where will you Work?

• TVs, TV Broadcast, IPTV
• Phones, Mobile Phones, Telecom Networks
• Computers, Networks, Routers
• Wifi, WiMax, Broadband, VoIP
• Radar, Avionics, Planes, Spacecraft
• Medical Electronics, CT Scanners
• GPS, Galileo, Positioning, Navigation
• Radios, Communications
• Satellites, Satellite Ground Systems Comms
• Marine Electronics
• Automotive Electronics
• Defence Electronics, Countermeasures,
  Surveillance
• Domestic Electronics, Home Audio/Video
• Test Equipment, Monitoring Systems

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Arthur C Clarkes Three Laws

• When a distinguished elderly scientist states
  that something is possible, he is almost
  certainly right. When he states that something is
  impossible, he is very probably wrong.
• The only way of discovering the limits of the
  possible is to venture past them into the
  impossible.
• Any sufficiently advanced technology is
  indistinguishable from magic.

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Have you heard the one about.

• The Undertaker
• the Actress
• the Scientist?
• Alexander Graham Bell - Scientist
• Telephone - 1872
• Almon Brown Strowger - Undertaker
• Automatic Telephone Exchange - 1891
• Hedy Lamarr - Actress
• Spread Spectrum Communications - 1942
• What were they doing?

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Charles Currys Three Types of People

• There are those who make it happen..
• .There are those who watch it happen..
• .and there are those who say
• Hey, What happened?
• Which one are you?
• You are all Engineers
• You are Make it Happen people
• You will never be out of a job!

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The Knack featuring Little Dilbert
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Come and Browse

• My Text Books
• My Exam Papers
• ESHOCK NEWS
• The Guild Gazette
• My Course Notes
• Contemporary Magazines
• My Projects

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you engineers are our future please email me
for a link to this talk or come up now with your
USB stick charles.curry_at_chronos.co.uk www.chrono
s.co.uk www.gps-world.biz www.syncwatch.com
Thank You