Patent ID: 7411867

Claim:
A composite clock, comprising: a plurality of individual clocks, each producing a clock signal, and the i th clock having known Allan variance curve give by a standard curve times a constant λ i ; reading means coupled to said plurality of individual clocks, for simultaneously reading said clock signals; and means coupled to said reading means and to a source of said variance information, for generating a composite clock signal according to x -> c ⁡ ( t ) = ∑ i = 1 n ⁢ K i * ⁢ x -> i ⁡ ( t ) ( 57 ) where {right arrow over (x)} c =Composite clock state (estimate of phase and/or frequency produced by the composite clock mechanism); * represents multiplication; {right arrow over (x)} i =Individual clock states read out by the hardware K i =the gain chosen to optimize the stability of the composite clock, such that K i = ( 1 / λ i ) / ( ∑ j = 1 n ⁢ ⁢ 1 / λ j ) . ( 58 )