Communication Network Synchronization Jump Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing synchronization systems in communication networks face challenges in accurately detecting true jumps in propagation delays due to noise, especially in wireless communication networks where variations are fast and relevant, leading to potential loss of synchronization and incorrect corrective actions.
Innovation Solution
A synchronization device and system that includes a noise estimator and dynamic threshold calculator to estimate noise affecting propagation delay samples and calculate a threshold for jump detection, using a jump detector to divide samples into windows, extract lower delay values, filter medians, and detect jumps based on squared variations or linear regression, effectively distinguishing true jumps from noise.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If existing synchronization systems use simple threshold-based jump detection, then the device complexity is low, but the measurement precision of detecting true jumps from noise deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the sequence of propagation delay samples into multiple windows of Wn samples each, then extracts a subset of Wb samples from each window. This segmentation allows the system to analyze local statistics within each window while maintaining overall sequence context, improving jump detection precision without requiring excessive computational resources on the entire dataset at once.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary filtering by extracting the Wb lower propagation delay values from each window before median calculation and jump detection. This preliminary action removes obvious outliers and reduces the impact of noise, allowing the subsequent median-based detection to focus on genuine jumps rather than noise fluctuations.
2Reliability
If the system uses a fixed threshold for jump detection, then the ease of operation is high, but the reliability of detecting jumps in varying noise conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic threshold that adapts to varying noise conditions by calculating the median of propagation delay samples within each window and comparing variations against this adaptive reference. The threshold is no longer a fixed value but dynamically adjusts based on the statistical properties of the incoming data, ensuring reliable jump detection across different noise environments without manual reconfiguration.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the median of previously processed samples as feedback to establish the detection threshold for current samples. This feedback mechanism allows the system to learn the normal variation pattern from historical data and use it to distinguish genuine jumps from noise, improving reliability while requiring only simple median calculation operations.
3Measurement precision
If the system processes all propagation delay samples without filtering, then the productivity is high, but the measurement precision of jump detection deteriorates due to noise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the Wb lower propagation delay values from each window of Wn samples, discarding the upper Wn-Wb values that are more likely to be noise or outliers. This extraction principle allows the system to process a reduced subset of samples that are more relevant for accurate jump detection, improving measurement precision while maintaining acceptable processing throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different processing quality to different parts of the data: the Wb lower samples within each window receive full attention for median calculation and jump detection, while the upper samples are effectively filtered out. This local quality approach ensures that computational resources are focused on the most informative samples, achieving high precision without processing every single sample.
Data Source
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AI summary
It is disclosed a synchronization device for a communication network. The synchronization device comprises a noise estimator and dynamic threshold calculator block configured to estimate a noise affecting a sequence of propagation delay samples obtained from timestamps relating to synchronization packets exchanged with a master node of the communication network, and to calculate a threshold based on the estimated noise. The synchronization device also comprises a jump detector configured to detect, based on said threshold, jumps in the sequence of propagation delay samples.