Patent ID: 8055288

Claim:
A system for transferring time over a network utilizing signals of opportunity transmitted by one or more transmitters with known locations, the system comprising: a base receiver with a clock synchronized to a reference time that samples the signals of opportunity, time tags the samples with a calculated time of broadcast, and sends a series of the time-tagged samples over a communications network, the base receiver calculating the time of broadcast based on the time of receipt of the signal that corresponds to the series of samples and a time delay associated with a base line from the transmitter to the base receiver; a remote receiver that receives information over the communications network, the remote receiver saving and time-tagging samples of the signals of opportunity, correlating the time-tagged series of samples received over the communications network with the saved time-tagged samples, calculating a time of broadcast of the saved time-tagged samples that correspond to the received series of samples, determining a time offset as a difference in the time of broadcast calculated at the remote receiver and the time of broadcast calculated at the base receiver, and determining the time with respect to the reference time at base receiver based on the time offset.