BOOSTED stands for 'Belgium Optical network for Optical frequency Standards and TimE Dissemination' and aims to develop an optical network for time & frequency (T&F) transfer in Belgium and connect it, via France, to the European metrological network.
BOOSTED in a nutshell
BOOSTED is funded by INFRA-FED, an initiative of the federal government to promote the development of emerging research infrastructures within federal research institutions.
The project - led by the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) - started at the end of April 2023 and will run until the end of 2026.
The project is currently in the exploration phase and the technical requirements to be met to transport the ultra-stable time & frequency signal over the Belnet fibre optic network are being explored. To this end, there is close consultation between the ROB, Belnet, UCLouvain, REFIMEVE, the Observatoire de Paris, the Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (LPL, Paris) and GÉANT.
The role of Belnet
Belnet plays an important role in the BOOSTED project and brings a lot of expertise in network infrastructure and related technologies.
Following France's example, the ROB aims to use the national research network linking universities and research centres. It therefore turned to Belnet, operator of the Belgian research network, to enable metrological signal and data traffic to be transported in parallel over its fibre optic network, without interference.
In Belgium, a connection will be designed between the Royal Observatory of Belgium and several Belgian universities, where the ultra-stable frequency will be used for high-resolution laser spectroscopy (e.g. UCLouvain) and for photonic research (ULB).
Belnet network engineers are currently working out various schematic set-ups for transporting this ultra-stable T&F signal over the Belnet backbone. Belnet is collaborating on the connection to the French network REFIMEVE, through which an ultra-stable reference frequency is already distributed.
