Building trusted, resilient timing for fintech infrastructure
Fintech systems are pushing timing accuracy into the nanosecond and beyond, making dependence on GNSS an operational risk. Let’s explore how timing distribution and atomic holdover support time during disruptions.
Jeremy Onyan
Why trust matters in timing more than ever
For well over a decade, precise time has been a critical part of fintech systems. High-frequency trading (HFT), regulatory requirements and increasing competition have driven the need for increasingly accurate and reliable timing. Today, nanoseconds are starting to be traded for picoseconds, but at the heart of it all is still GNSS.
Most of the fintech industry still relies on GNSS as its primary source of trusted time. However, numerous examples in recent years have proven that GNSS is vulnerable, easily disrupted and susceptible to more advanced attacks such as spoofing. As a result, new initiatives at the federal, state and industry levels are emerging to safeguard or augment critical systems that rely on satellite-based timing.
Rethinking timing resilience
The good news for the fintech industry is that one of the most effective ways to protect timing infrastructure from GNSS vulnerabilities is to leverage the high-speed fiber networks already in place, augmented with high-quality holdover references.
In the case of fintech, that reference is cesium.
It’s common for many systems to rely on rubidium oscillators within time servers for local holdover. However, as applications push into nanosecond-level accuracy, even rubidium – long considered the gold standard for holdover – can only maintain that level of precision for a limited time. Rubidium may be good for minutes or several hours, but it’s not designed to maintain high precision over extended outages.
Cesium addresses a different class of requirement, delivering long term, stable holdover over periods measured in months rather than hours.
Why cesium, and why now
Cesium has long been recognized for providing the best-in-class long-term holdover performance. It’s been used for decades in industries such as telecommunications to ensure the continuous operation of critical financial systems that rely on precise time.
With timing playing such a key role in fintech, it’s becoming more and more clear why the industry is beginning to adopt cesium as part of a resilient timing architecture.
However, not all cesium clocks are created equal.
Advancements in optical pumping cesium technology have significantly changed the playing field. Optical pumping technology improves the performance potential of cesium without increasing cost, while also introducing a more modern system architecture compared to traditional magnetic cesium clocks.
Maintaining trusted time during GNSS disruptions requires a resilient timing architecture built on atomic holdover and terrestrial distribution.
Next-generation performance
Optical pumping cesium clocks use a laser to repolarize atoms, increasing atomic flux, which is then measured to derive time. This approach allows optical cesium clocks to operate with 100x higher flux levels than magnetic cesium clocks.
The result is a significant improvement in performance, including 100ns of holdover for up to 150 days.
For fintech applications, this level of performance provides a reliable solution for maintaining accurate time across critical infrastructure, even during GNSS disruptions.
Combining atomic timing with fiber networks
For fintech, the opportunity goes beyond simply improving holdover.
By leveraging existing low-latency networks, it becomes possible to distribute time across sites with accuracies that rival the performance of a basic GNSS receiver. With technologies such as White Rabbit, it’s even possible to surpass GNSS performance and achieve sub-nanosecond accuracy.
At Oscilloquartz, we’ve validated this approach, demonstrating sub-nanosecond offsets over distances greater than 800km using White Rabbit. This combination of optical cesium for stability and fiber-based distribution for accuracy provides a powerful approach to protecting against GNSS jamming and spoofing.
Power in resiliency
For fintech, the implication is clear.
The real challenge is not whether precise time matters or whether GNSS remains part of the architecture. It’s what happens when GNSS is disrupted for hours, days or longer, and how trusted time is maintained. For organizations that already operate low-latency fiber networks, the answer increasingly lies in terrestrial time distribution combined with high-quality atomic references at critical sites.
When true resiliency is the objective, not just short-term holdover, the conversation should move beyond legacy magnetic clocks.
It should focus on optical cesium.
