Characterization of Frequency Stability: Bias Due to the Juxtaposition of Time-Interval Measurements

The characterization of frequency stability is usually achieved by means of numerically processed time-interval measurements. In the present paper, we study the bias occurring in the frequency stability measure when successive data with the same mean durations are added in order to get different sets of samples with various mean durations. The effect of a dead time between the data involved in the considered algorithm is pointed out. An experimental analysis is presented which checks the theoretical results for several noise processes in different experimental conditions.