1. On Asian-European link
Future & link-fee shares plan
Current status
NICT

2. Asian-European link via IS-4
Promotion of IS-4 Asian-European link
Until 2009/3, NICT pays the link fee.
- Any users are welcomed to join the link free of charge.
- Available time is divided into SATRE-modem link
and NICT-modem link.
From 2009/4, NICT wants to share the fee
with participants in the link.
- Integration into SATRE-modem link
New participants are much welcomed.

3. Time schedule TWSTFT Link fee 2007/09 2008/09 2009/04 2010/03
NICT modem
SATRE modem
Only
SATRE modem
TWSTFT
NICT pays the link fee
Sharing
Link fee
Fix how to share the fee
Start sharing
Plan the fee budget

4. Current participants 2008/04 5 6 7 8 9 10
NICT modem
PTB/NICT/NMIJ/KRISS
SATRE modem
PTB
NICT TL
NTSC
OP and VSL will join in near future.
Regular sessions are hourly performed.

5. Link fee share for 2009
* Expected participants in 2009 are as follows;
Europe: PTB, OP, VSL
Asia: NICT, TL, NTSC, NMIJ, KRISS, NIM
* Contribution month in 2009 (fixed)
month 4 5 6 7 8 9
Institute
NICT
NTSC
NMIJ
month 10 11 12 1 2 3
Institute
KRISS
PTB OP
VSL TL
NIM
US$ 15900/month (US$ /year)
* The number of contribution months by each institute
Institute
Contribution OP
1 month/1 year
NIM
PTB
NMIJ
2 months/1 year
VSL
1 month/ 2 years
NTSC
KRISS TL
NICT

6. Important information
Intelsat Tokyo Office information:
Indian Co. will make a corner in IS-4 transponder connecting between Europe and Asia from April, 2009.
Intelsat Tokyo office and NICT have been investigating another available satellite.
Possible satellites: Eutelsat W5(70.5E) and ABS-1(74E).
The elevation angle of ABS-1,however, will be 2.6 deg in France, so we might not obtain radio permission. This means that Eutelsat W5 will be better.
To enter into annual contract of IS-4, NICT has to make a decision on this matter by the end of November.
NICT will inform you as soon as we have the latest information.

7. Current status on PTB station

8. Current participants 2008/04 5 6 7 8 9 10
NICT modem
PTB/NICT/NMIJ/KRISS
SATRE modem
PTB
NICT TL
NTSC
OP and VSL will join in near future.
Regular sessions are performed every hour.

9. Data acquisition rate by NICT modem
Error source
investigation
Average: 90 %
08/05/07
*Regular session: 24 times/ day
*Failure session: data deviation larger than 1 ns or outlier
The quality of data suddenly decreased from the beginning of May 2008.
To investigate PTB station, time transfer was stopped for about 40 days.
On 2008/9/12, PTB station recovered from the problem and restarted time transfer .

10. Delay measurement in PTB station
outdoor
14 GHz
12 GHz
NICT
modem
switch
U/C
mixer
E/O
O/E
HPA
optical fiber
1 km SG
Att
optical fiber
1 km
switch
D/C
O/E
E/O
LNA

11. Delay measurement in PTB station
14 GHz
12 GHz
NICT
modem
switch
U/C
mixer
E/O
O/E
HPA
optical fiber
1 km SG
optical fiber
1 km
switch
D/C
O/E
E/O
LNA
*Outdoor equipment (O/E, E/O, 2 amplifiers) was replaced and
PTB station recovered.
*It seems that the instability happened when the outdoor temperature
was higher...
First install outdoor rack with cooling fans and then place outdoor equipment except HPA, LNA in it.
Start monitoring round-trip delay in the station

12. Monitoring system of earth station delay
optical fiber
1 km
@PTB
NICT/SATRE
modem
switch UC
E/O
O/E
combiner
HPA
GHz
isolator
Code division measurement or
Time division measurement
SG (free run)
GHz
isolator
optical fiber
1 km
Att
temperature
-controlled box
10.95~11.79 GHz
12~18GHz
switch DC
O/E
E/O
combiner
LNA
~15 GHz
signals from Asia
GHz
in outdoor rack with fans

13. Summary
*For these three or four years, IS-4 link seems to be available.
*From April 2009, link-fee shares will start. Contribution of each participant has already been fixed. We hope to continue link-fee shares after 2010.
*Time transfers with PTB station stopped for about 1 month
due to errors of outdoor equipment. They work properly
now. To prevent such errors, an outdoor rack and monitoring systems were installed at PTB station.
* If there are any stations which want to join this link, please contact NICT.