Distributed Network Clock Synchronization With Delay Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional distributed network systems face challenges in achieving precise time synchronization due to varying hardware clock frequencies and sample rate errors among nodes, leading to time drift and measurement inaccuracies.
Innovation Solution
A distributed network system utilizing a master controller with a master clock and transmission delay modules to adjust time, combined with FPGA-based deterministic delays and receive delays at each node, ensuring synchronized clocks across the network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If each node uses its own hardware clock, then each node can operate independently, but time drift and sample rate errors occur between nodes
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the distributed network into a hierarchical structure with a master controller and multiple slave nodes. Each node maintains its own clock operation independently, but the master controller segments the time synchronization function by generating and distributing master time to all slaves, resolving the contradiction between independent operation and synchronized timing.
Solution Approach 2:
The master controller acts as an intermediary between the various slave nodes' clocks. It generates the master time and distributes it to all slaves, mediating the time synchronization across the network. This intermediary approach allows nodes to operate independently while maintaining precise time alignment through the master's coordinated time distribution.
2Device complexity
If time synchronization is implemented without delay compensation, then the system is simpler, but transmission delays cause time drift between nodes
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and compensating for transmission delays before time synchronization occurs. The master controller and slave nodes each have delay modules that add known delay values to the time stamps, effectively pre-adjusting for the transmission time. This preliminary compensation ensures that when time is synchronized, the known delays have already been accounted for, maintaining precision without requiring complex real-time adjustment mechanisms.
3Measurement precision
If delay modules are added to compensate for transmission time, then time synchronization precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the time parameter by adding known delay values to the time stamps generated by the master and slave nodes. Rather than physically adjusting transmission speeds or hardware timing, the solution modifies the time parameter itself through software-based delay compensation. This approach achieves precise synchronization while keeping the hardware relatively simple, as the complexity is managed through parameter adjustment rather than additional physical components.
Data Source
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AI summary
A distributed network system can include a master controller having a master clock configured to output a master time, and a master transmission delay time module configured to modify the master time to add a known master transmission delay to the master time to output an adjusted master time. The system can include a first device operatively connected to the master controller and configured to receive the adjusted master time from the master controller.