Fibre-to-the-telescope: MeerKAT, the South African precursor to square kilometre telescope array (SKA)

Scientific curiosity to probe the nature of the universe is pushing boundaries of big data transport and computing for radio telescopes. MeerKAT, the South African precursor to Square Kilometre Array (SKA), has 64 antennae separated by up to 12 km. By 2018, each antenna will stream up to 160 Gbps over optical fibre to a central computing engine. The antennae digitizers require highly accurate clock signals distributed with high stability. This paper outlines requirements and key design aspects of the MeerKAT network with timing reference overlay. Fieldwork results are presented into the impact of birefringence and polarization fluctuations on clock stability.