The REFIMEVE project establishes the French national metrological network for the dissemination of ultra-stable time and frequency signals over optical fiber. This infrastructure, extending across the academic and scientific landscape, enables laboratories and large-scale facilities to access reference signals directly traceable to national standards.
In this talk, I will first introduce the REFIMEVE network architecture and its performance, achieved through active compensation of fiber noise over long-haul links. I will then present ongoing developments in high-performance, low-noise digital electronics, focusing on the Idrogen board, a new platform to deliver precise and low-jitter timing signals over fiber networks. Its metrological characterization will illustrate the performance limits now attainable for time and frequency transfer.
Finally, I will discuss how these technologies open new possibilities for scientific applications requiring picosecond-level synchronization, including very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) and multi-messenger astronomy, as well as prospective connections to major European research infrastructures.
Paul-Eric Pottie