White Rabbit Technology- Based IST Dissemination Demonstration Network
The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution commissioned the White Rabbit Technology-based Indian Standard Time (IST) Dissemination Demonstration Network at the Regional Reference Standard Laboratory (RRSL), Bengaluru, establishing a major milestone in building indigenous, secure Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for the country.
- IST Dissemination Demonstration Network: It is a secure, tamper-resistant network designed to distribute IST across critical digital infrastructure, ensuring precise synchronization across connected systems.
- The network is a collaborative effort between the Department of Consumer Affairs, the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL) (the custodian of IST), and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- It disseminates IST that is directly traceable to the national time standard, UTC (NPLI) maintained by CSIR–NPL, using Precision Time Protocol (PTP)-based White Rabbit (WR) Technology.
- It is engineered to deliver resilient, tamper-proof time synchronization across banking and financial markets, telecommunications (5G/6G), power systems (smart grids), transportation, and digital governance.
- A successful verification test of secure time transmission was already completed between the Regional Reference Standard Laboratory (RRSL) in Bengaluru and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) facility in Chennai.
- White Rabbit (WR) is an advanced extension of the Precision Time Protocol (IEEE 1588). It combines highly accurate timing with standard Ethernet networking capabilities, ensuring that data packets carry hyper-accurate timestamps.
- It allows for synchronization of network nodes with microsecond-to-nanosecond accuracy over optical fibers.
- Unlike foreign satellite-based systems like the Global Positioning System (GPS), which are vulnerable to spoofing, jamming, and signal loss, WR transmitted over terrestrial optical networks is highly secure and resilient.
