PICOSECONDS-LEVEL PRECISION INTER-SATELLITE TIME AND FREQUENCY TRANSFER FOR SYNTHETIC BEAMFORMING IN FREQUENCY RANGE 1 (FR 1) (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.061) - EXPRO+
About This Opportunity
This is a services contract in the information and communication technology sector. Located in International, Europe, this opportunity is open to firms and consortiums.
Published through ESA - European Space Agency, a multilateral development bank that follows standardized international procurement guidelines. Projects funded by multilateral institutions are generally open to international bidders from eligible member countries for services in the information and communication technology sector. Service contracts are typically evaluated on both technical quality and price, and may require bidders to demonstrate relevant experience and qualified personnel. This is an advance notice — the formal tender is expected to be published shortly. Interested parties can use this time to prepare documentation and identify potential partners.
Description
Objective: The objective of the activity is to design and test inter-satellite time and frequency transfer techniques achieving picoseconds-level precision, enabling tight phasesynchronization between satellite nodes for FR1 band synthetic beamforming.TargetedImprovements: - Achieve phase synchronization precision of better than /16 at in FR 1. Enable scalable synthetic aperture and coherent signal combination between satellite nodes in LEOand MEO constellations.- Improve phase stability and coherence time by >1000 over current distributed clock synchronization.Description: Distributed satellite systems performing synthetic beamforming in the FR1 band require synchronization at picoseconds precision across all contributing satellite nodes in 2 upto 3 dimensions. This is essential to coherently align phases across satellites separated by hundreds of metres to kilometres and support applications such as high-gainaperture synthesis, enabling direct-to-device application as well as distributed sensing. This is required to complement position and navigation and timing techniques.This activity will design and prototype time / frequency transfer architectures that may rely on digital processing from user receive antenna, bidirectional links or broadcast,coupled with high-resolution phase tracking and active compensation of inter-satellite Doppler and propagation delay variations.The activity will- Identify representative use cases and architecture constraints for using 5G-NR distributed beamforming in the FR1 band, including co-existence with communication links.- Review available published techniques, papers and patents for PN as well as distributed time and frequency synchronization and trade off the ones applicable to this usecase- Design and evaluate several techniques for high-resolution time / frequency transfer using in-band inter-satellite links or dedicated links, using optical or RF.- Develop and implement a laboratory test bed simulating inter-satellite conditions (Doppler, delay, oscillator instability, orbital mechanics).- Test and evaluate synchronization performance using representative space-grade timing sources and communication links.
Data provenance
This notice is sourced from ESA - European Space Agency and was originally published on June 1, 2026. Last refreshed 4 days ago. BidsFactory mirrors official procurement notices and links back to the source for full legal text.
About European Space Agency (ESA)
European Space Agency (ESA) has issued 555 procurement notices on BidsFactory, including 204 currently open and 138 awarded contracts. Activity concentrates in Information & Communication Technology, Transport & Logistics, and Environment & Climate. Tenders span 9 countries including Denmark, Czech Republic, and Austria. Notices are distributed via ESA - European Space Agency. Most recent publication: June 10, 2026.
Frequently asked questions about this tender
What type of contract is this?
This is a Services contract in the Information & Communication Technology sector. The classification helps bidders match the opportunity to their qualifications and registered scope of supply.
Where will the contract be performed?
The contract is for delivery in International. Foreign bidders should review local registration, taxation, and any in-country presence requirements before submitting.
How can I submit a bid?
Visit ESA - European Space Agency to access the full notice, required documents, and submission instructions provided by the contracting authority.
Who is the contracting authority?
This notice was issued by European Space Agency (ESA) in International. The authority is responsible for evaluating bids, awarding the contract, and managing performance.
Find tenders like this automatically
Set up alerts and filters that match your business — never miss a relevant opportunity again.
Sectors & Categories
Key Details
Contracting Authority
Companies That Won Similar
Companies with awards in Information & Communication Technology in International