Method and apparatus for restarting a GPS-based timing system without a GPS signal

1. A method comprising:

calculating a correction factor for an oscillator based on a GPS traceable timing signal; and

storing the correction factor in a non-volatile memory.

2. The method, as set forth in claim 1 , comprising determining if a GPS traceable timing signal is available.

3. The method, as set forth in claim 2 , comprising tuning the frequency of the oscillator using the correction factor stored in the non-volatile memory if the GPS traceable timing signal is not available.

4. The method, as set forth in claim 3 , wherein tuning the frequency comprises tuning the frequency of the oscillator in response to restarting a system without a GPS traceable timing signal.

5. The method, as set forth in claim 3 , comprising generating a timing signal with the tuned oscillator.

6. The method, as set forth in claim 5 , comprising synchronizing an application using the timing signal generated by the tuned oscillator.

7. The method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein calculating a correction factor comprises calculating a correction factor based on a trend of previous correction factors.

8. The method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein calculating a correction factor comprises calculating a correction factor based on an average of plurality of recent correction factors.

9. A system comprising:

an antenna;

a GPS receiver coupled to the antenna and configured to generate a GPS traceable timing signal based on a GPS transmission; and

a timing system coupled to the GPS receiver, the timing system comprising:

a holdover oscillator;

timing circuitry coupled to the holdover oscillator and configured to receive the GPS traceable timing signal and to calculate a correction factor for the holdover oscillator; and

a non-volatile memory coupled to the timing circuitry, wherein the timing circuitry is configured to store the correction factor on the non-volatile memory.

10. The system, as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the timing circuitry is configured to tune the frequency of the holdover oscillator based on the correction factor stored in the non-volatile memory.

11. The system, as set forth in claim 10 , wherein the timing circuitry is configured to generate a timing signal based on the tuned frequency of the holdover oscillator.

12. The system, as set forth in claim 11 , comprising an application configured to employ the timing signal.

13. The system, as set forth in claim 12 , wherein the application comprises a wireless base station.

14. The system, as set forth in claim 13 , wherein the wireless base station comprises the timing system.

15. The system, as set forth in claim 13 , wherein the application comprises an electrical power distribution system.

16. The system, as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the non-volatile memory comprises flash memory.

17. The system, as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the non-volatile memory comprises random access memory coupled to a battery.

18. A tangible machine readable medium comprising:

code adapted to calculate a correction factor for an oscillator based on a GPS traceable timing signal; and

code adapted to store the correction factor in a non-volatile memory.

19. The tangible medium, as set forth in claim 18 , comprising code adapted to determine if a GPS traceable timing signal is available.

20. The tangible medium, as set forth in claim 18 , wherein the non-volatile memory comprises flash memory.