--- title: "Architecture: Positioning and timing | Nexus Observatory" description: "Reference architecture of the Positioning, navigation and timing platform: six layers, the protocol functions it relies on and the evidence behind every…" url: https://observatory.global/pnt/architecture/ publisher: Nexus Observatory Inc. updated: 2026-11-07 --- [Nexus Observatory](https://observatory.global/) / [Positioning, navigation and timing](https://observatory.global/pnt/) / **Architecture** # How positioning, navigation and timing is built. One reference architecture under every deployment: the layers of a site, the protocol functions this platform relies on, and the evidence that travels with every observation. [Plan with us](https://observatory.global/pnt/contact/deployment/) [Industries](https://observatory.global/pnt/industries/) Areas · **5** Technologies · **59** Industries · **6** At a glance ## GNSS positioning and augmentation In Positioning, navigation and timing, the GNSS positioning and augmentation layer holds multi-constellation, multi-frequency receivers, RTK networks and NTRIP and PPP and PPP-RTK, each drawn against the standard it follows. Receivers using GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou and regional systems on several frequencies for accuracy and robustness. The problem ### Where and when, with the error bound This page shows how Positioning, navigation and timing is put together, layer by layer, from the instrument to the record. GNSS reference stations tied to the geodetic frame, PTP and SyncE time distribution engineered to the budget, grandmasters and holdover that ride through outages, and resilient PNT that finds jamming and spoofing before a timestamp goes wrong. Components - Geodetic GNSS station on a deep-drilled braced monument (generic class, no brand) - Robotic total station in a monitoring shelter - Slope stability radar on a trailer - Haul truck with onboard network and autonomy kit - Private LTE mast on a solar skid - "AI tower in a box" - PTP grandmaster clock with GNSS antenna - Data hall row pair with cold-aisle containment Interfaces **Time and position**: GNSS 1PPS Where it works - Spectrum monitoring and interference management - Interference, jamming and spoofing detection In the story below 1. The system, part by part 2. Assembly 3. Installation 4. Deployment 5. Connections 6. Operation 7. Failure and recovery 8. Scale and federation 9. What you get Scenes · 13 Next steps [Plan a deployment](https://observatory.global/pnt/contact/deployment/) [Open the Field Deployment Studio](https://observatory.global/studio/) [See Positioning, navigation and timing](https://observatory.global/pnt/) 1. Positioning, navigation and timing · Architecture Where and when, with the error bound This page shows how Positioning, navigation and timing is put together, layer by layer, from the instrument to the record. GNSS reference stations tied to the geodetic frame, PTP and SyncE time distribution engineered to the budget, grandmasters and holdover that ride through outages, and resilient PNT that finds jamming and spoofing before a timestamp goes wrong. 2. Architecture · Spectrum, timing and PNT GNSS positioning and augmentation In Positioning, navigation and timing, the GNSS positioning and augmentation layer holds multi-constellation, multi-frequency receivers, RTK networks and NTRIP and PPP and PPP-RTK, each drawn against the standard it follows. Receivers using GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou and regional systems on several frequencies for accuracy and robustness. 3. Architecture · Spectrum, timing and PNT Spectrum regimes and access In Positioning, navigation and timing, the spectrum regimes and access layer holds exclusive licensed spectrum, tiered shared access and local and light licensing, each drawn against the standard it follows. Auctioned or assigned spectrum licences with defined areas, terms and conditions, used for public mobile networks. 4. Architecture · Spectrum, timing and PNT Spectrum monitoring and interference management In Positioning, navigation and timing, the spectrum monitoring and interference management layer holds fixed, transportable and mobile monitoring stations, spectrum occupancy measurement and emitter location, each drawn against the standard it follows. Calibrated receivers and antennas that measure what is actually on air around a site or region. 5. Architecture · Spectrum, timing and PNT Resilient PNT In Positioning, navigation and timing, the resilient PNT layer holds resilient PNT frameworks, terrestrial radionavigation and time over fibre, each drawn against the standard it follows. Structured ways to assess and raise how well equipment resists, detects and recovers from PNT disruption. 6. How it works From instrument to record In a network for Positioning, navigation and timing, the base node stands between the instrument and the link: it checks each value, stamps its time and place and signs it. The edge refuses any record for Positioning, navigation and timing whose signature fails, and the core keeps every admitted record with its metadata, its quality flag and its licence. 7. Trust Proved before it is trusted A network for Positioning, navigation and timing admits a node only once its hardware root of trust has answered an attestation challenge, whoever supplied it. Signed software, keys kept in secure hardware and a signature on every record let anyone check where a value for Positioning, navigation and timing came from. 8. Architecture · Spectrum, timing and PNT Grandmasters, reference clocks and holdover In Positioning, navigation and timing, the grandmasters, reference clocks and holdover layer holds PRTC and enhanced PRTC, primary reference clocks for frequency and atomic and quartz oscillators, each drawn against the standard it follows. GNSS-traceable time references at 100 ns or 30 ns accuracy that anchor a timing network. 9. Architecture · Spectrum, timing and PNT Interference, jamming and spoofing detection In Positioning, navigation and timing, the interference, jamming and spoofing detection layer holds GNSS interference monitoring, spoofing detection and jammer location to support enforcement, each drawn against the standard it follows. Fixed sensors that detect and characterise GNSS interference near critical sites; detection and reporting only. 10. Failure and recovery When a node fails, the fleet knows first A failure on a network for Positioning, navigation and timing is caught by the fleet before anyone reports it: the node buffers its data and fails over where it can. The responder for Positioning, navigation and timing gets the evidence with the alert, and the record neither loses data nor counts it twice. 11. Architecture · Spectrum, timing and PNT Packet timing: PTP, SyncE and NTP In Positioning, navigation and timing, the packet timing: PTP, SyncE and NTP layer holds Precision Time Protocol, telecom profile with full timing support and telecom profile with partial timing support, each drawn against the standard it follows. The base protocol for distributing time and phase over packet networks. 12. What you get Open where it can be, contracted where it must be What is open for Positioning, navigation and timing is free: the protocol, the methods and the open data can be used and built on by anyone. What must be contracted for Positioning, navigation and timing, sites, fleets, managed operations and data tiers, Nexus Observatory Inc. delivers at a price per site and per fleet, with service levels in numbers. 13. Next step Positioning, navigation and timing, planned with you Tell us which layers of Positioning, navigation and timing you already run and which you want us to design and deliver. An engineer replies with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for Positioning, navigation and timing, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need. [Plan a deployment](https://observatory.global/pnt/contact/deployment/) [Open the Field Deployment Studio](https://observatory.global/studio/) [See Positioning, navigation and timing](https://observatory.global/pnt/) More presentations ## See it from every side. Each opens as a full-screen presentation: deeper pages on the same subject, explainers, stories, guided tours of the places, network scenes and the observatories that came before. [All presentations](https://observatory.global/presentations/) ### In depth [Use case **Highway corridor coverage and safety sensing**](https://observatory.global/use-cases/highway-corridor/) [Use case **Utility grid-edge private LTE and wildfire weather**](https://observatory.global/use-cases/utility-grid-edge/) [Use case **Wildfire camera and fire-weather node**](https://observatory.global/use-cases/wildfire-camera/) [Use case **Community cellular and sensing**](https://observatory.global/use-cases/community-cellular/) ### Explainers [Explainer · Environment and climate **Environment and climate — Sectors** Methane fencelines, acoustic biodiversity grids, flux towers, river sondes and smoke networks: an interactive explainer with the method behind every number.](https://observatory.global/industries/climate/explainer/) [Explainer · Communities and rural **Communities and rural** Community cellular coverage on real terrain, fixed-wireless Fresnel clearance, corridors, a remote microgrid sized from its load and interim public-safety broadband.](https://observatory.global/industries/communities/explainer/) [Platform **Positioning, navigation and timing** A wrong timestamp is a wrong answer](https://observatory.global/pnt/) [Platform **Sensors & instruments** A number without its story](https://observatory.global/sensors/) ### Stories [Story · Timing and PNT **Time as infrastructure** A 5G cell must hold its phase within 3 µs of its neighbours, ±1.5 µs of a common reference; a synchrophasor’s one per cent vector error leaves room for only…](https://observatory.global/stories/timing-pnt/) [Story · Mountains and avalanche terrain **Snowpack, slope and signal** Avalanche forecasting reasons about the likelihood and size of avalanches on given terrain. The observations behind it come from a few stations in hard…](https://observatory.global/stories/mountain-avalanche/) [Story · 6G and sensing **Networks that sense** The framework for 6G names integrated sensing and communication as one of its usage scenarios: the same radio that carries data also measures range,…](https://observatory.global/stories/sensing-networks-6g/) ### Places and networks [Guided tour · Guided 3D tour **Arctic station** A self-powered station on the ice: a microgrid, a low-orbit satellite terminal, a weather station, a GNSS monument and an edge node that holds data through the polar night.](https://observatory.global/environments/arctic-station/) [Guided tour · Guided 3D tour **Orbit view** Ground tracks of a sun-synchronous imager and three shells of a broadband constellation, computed from their orbits over a rotating Earth.](https://observatory.global/environments/orbit-view/) [Guided tour · Guided 3D tour **Coastal port** Coastal radar and AIS watch the approach, a met-ocean buoy reports the sea state, and crane-side edge compute closes the control loop on a private network.](https://observatory.global/environments/coastal-port/) [Network scene · NTN · Satellite **Satellite direct to device in a mountain valley** Where the valley cell cannot reach, phones on the pass road connect straight to a low-orbit satellite, which relays through its feeder link to a gateway.](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/ntn-d2d/) [Network scene · Private 5G · Port **Private 5G at a container port** Small cells on the yard lighting masts and a sector site on the operations building serve remote-controlled cranes and trucks among steel container stacks.](https://observatory.global/environments/networks/private5g-port/) ### Heritage observatories [Heritage observatory · Germany · 1781 **Hohenpeißenberg Meteorological Observatory** A mountain-top weather station in Bavaria that has recorded without a break since 1 January 1781, started as a node of the first international weather society.](https://observatory.global/observatories/hohenpeissenberg/) [Heritage observatory · World ocean · 1999 **Argo profiling float array** About four thousand small robots drift through the oceans, sinking to 2,000 metres every ten days and rising to report temperature and salinity by satellite.](https://observatory.global/observatories/argo-float-array/) ### Interactive tools [Interactive tool · Plan a site **Field Deployment Studio** Terrain, devices, coverage, viewshed, power and the best spot for a station, then a deployment request with the plan attached.](https://observatory.global/studio/) **01** Reference architecture ## From one instrument to the grid. Every deployment is drawn on the same six layers. A typed contract sits at every boundary, so parts from different makers fit together. 1. **01** **Instrument** The sensor or radio that makes the measurement, with its calibration. 2. **02** **Node** The device that hosts instruments: identity, time, power and storage. 3. **03** **Site** Nodes in one place, on one mast or in one shelter, with their links. 4. **04** **Cell** Sites that share a backhaul, a power plan and an operator. 5. **05** **Cluster** Cells run as one service, with one fleet plan and one evidence trail. 6. **06** **Grid** Clusters that federate across owners through the open protocol. [**01** **Join** Identity, attestation quote, signed policy.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**02** **Admit** Admitted for a stated scope, nothing wider.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**03** **Describe** What, where, how and by whom, with calibration.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**04** **Time** One clock across the grid, with its error bound.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**05** **Observe** Every value with quality and provenance.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**06** **Qualify** Tested against the specification, state on record.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**07** **Federate** Signed exchange across grids and trust domains.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**08** **Orchestrate** Software and configuration by signed plan.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**09** **Correct** A correction marks what depends on it and publishes a new version.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**10** **Exchange** Products reach people and applications through versioned interfaces.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**11** **Prove** Signed proof receipts that an independent verifier can check.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) [**12** **Exit and decommission** An open exit path, and a record that closes.](https://observatory.global/protocol/functions/) The protocol functions this platform relies on most. **02** Trust and evidence ## Every observation carries its proof. What a buyer, a regulator or a partner grid can check, on every site we build. Evidence ### Identity and attestation Hardware-rooted identity, with a quote checked at every join. Evidence ### Segmentation Least privilege between nodes, tenants and sites. Evidence ### Time integrity Every clock monitored, every holdover logged. Evidence ### Evidence bundles What was done, by whom, with what result. Evidence ### Qualification state Each device and release, with the tests behind it. Evidence ### Signed plans Software and configuration change only by a signed plan. **03** Read further ## The open specification behind it. [Observatory Protocol Specification Functions, state machines, objects and flows. Read →](https://observatory.global/protocol/specification/) [Observatory Protocol Reference designs Nodes and sites drawn to the protocol. Read →](https://observatory.global/protocol/reference-designs/) [Observatory Protocol Conformance Run the suite against an implementation. Read →](https://observatory.global/protocol/conformance/) **04** On this site ## Where to go next. [Positioning, navigation and timing Areas Every area, with its systems and standards. Open →](https://observatory.global/pnt/areas/) [Positioning, navigation and timing Technologies The layered map of what we build with. Open →](https://observatory.global/pnt/technologies/) [Positioning, navigation and timing Industries The industry sites built on this platform. Open →](https://observatory.global/pnt/industries/) [Positioning, navigation and timing Resources Explainer, stories, specification and forms. Open →](https://observatory.global/pnt/resources/) ## Bring us the site. We bring the survey, the design and the crew. The form names who receives your details. [Plan a deployment](https://observatory.global/pnt/contact/deployment/) [Contact](https://observatory.global/pnt/contact/) [Nexus Observatory](https://observatory.global/) **Positioning, navigation and timing** . Where and when, with the error bound. 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