Validation of the ''full White Rabbit'' setup in the context of the KM3NeT experiment

The newborn Neutrino Astronomy is one of the most promising branches of astroparticle physics. Its main goal is to measure astrophysical neutrino fluxes and to identify their sources, thus allowing us to achieve a better understanding of the sources and the acceleration mechanisms of Cosmic Rays. Due to their unique physical properties, neutrinos constitute an optimal probe to observe high-energy astrophysical phenomena, as they propagate throughout the Universe for very large distances without being absorbed or deflected by magnetic fields along their travel. For this reason neutrino astronomy is expected to become decisive for settling questions about Cosmic Ray sources and acceleration mechanisms which cannot be solved by other means. The detection of astrophysical neutrinos is achieved by the deployment of neutrino telescopes deep under ice or water. The development of my thesis has been carried out within the KM3NeT experiment, which consists in two underwater detectors that are going to be installed in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, reaching a volume greater than 1 km3 of sea water instrumented with thousands of optical sensors. Due to the inaccessibility of the underwater sites, the technology used in the detectors must be carefully evaluated and validated with great accuracy before the deployment. The work of this thesis is aimed at the integration and validation at the Bologna Common Infrastructure (BCI) laboratory of a test bench based on the forthcoming network configuration of the detectors, which relies on a full standard White Rabbit network. The setup recreates a full Detection Unit with all electronic boards and relative Data AcQuisition system resources. The validation of the setup represents a focal point for the transition of the experiment towards its next phase. In particular, in this thesis the validation of the time synchronization and of the integrity and stability of optical and monitoring channel data streams will be illustrated.