Use Cases of White Rabbit
White Rabbit at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea: synchronising the KM3NeT neutrino telescope (Nikhef)
White Rabbit (WR) is used to establish a common notion of time across the network of detectors composing this underwater neutrino telescope. Nikhef has been involved in the design of many parts (mechanical, electrical and software) of the KM3NeT detector. The design of the Central Logic Board and implementing White Rabbit Technology in its FPGA is largely a Nikhef contribution.
White Rabbit at The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory, LHAASO (SyncTechnology)
To guarantee the angular resolution of the reconstructed track of cosmic ray, the over 8000 detectors distributed over 1.3 Km2 area on a plateau of 4410 meters must be synchronized with same sampling frequency and timestamp by a clock network. WR became the key and essential supporting technology of the experiment. The WR network has been fully installed and operated since 2021.
White Rabbit for Medical Applications: Modular Digital PET (SyncTechnology)
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is based on detecting two time-coincident photons from the emission of a positron-emitting radioisotope. With this deeply customized WR switch, an elegant and compact architecture is able to provide both time synchronization and coincidence processing and shows great scalability and modulization for PET instrument.
RF over WR to control accelerating cavities (CERN)
RF over WR allows real-time transmission of frequency tuning words over a WR network. These control words are then used to synthesize phase-aligned radio-frequency (RF) signals in different locations. These RF signals drive accelerating cavities in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN. In this system, WR is used to distribute the base phase-aligned WR […]
WR Trigger Distribution for distributed oscilloscope (CERN)
WR Trigger Distribution allows for spacial distribution between the source of a trigger and the location at which an input signal is observed. At CERN, many analogue signals coming from accelerators are digitized to allow for their monitoring. Signals coming from different parts of the machines must be correlated and can be sources of triggers. […]