A model-based approach to clock synchronization

Nikolaos M. Freris, Vivek S. Borkar, P. R. Kumar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

In a network of clocks, we consider a given reference node to determine the time evolution t. We introduce and analyze a stochastic model for clocks, in which the relative speedup of a clock, called the skew, is characterized by some given stochastic process. We study the problem of synchronizing clocks in a network, which amounts to estimating the instantaneous relative skews and relative offsets by exchange of time-stamped packets across the links of the network. We present a scheme for obtaining measurements in a communication link. We develop an algorithm for optimal filtering of measurements across a link (i, j) in order to estimate the logarithm of the relative speedup of node j with respect to node i, and we further study some implementation issues. We also present a scheme for pairwise offset estimation based on skew estimates. We study the properties of our algorithms and provide theoretical guarantees on their performance. We also develop an online centralized model-based asynchronous algorithm for optimal filtering of the time-stamps in the entire network, and an efficient distributed suboptimal scheme.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 48th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control held jointly with 2009 28th Chinese Control Conference, CDC/CCC 2009
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages5744-5749
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9781424438716
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Event48th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control held jointly with 2009 28th Chinese Control Conference, CDC/CCC 2009 - Shanghai, China
Duration: Dec 15 2009Dec 18 2009

Publication series

NameProceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control
ISSN (Print)0743-1546
ISSN (Electronic)2576-2370

Other

Other48th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control held jointly with 2009 28th Chinese Control Conference, CDC/CCC 2009
Country/TerritoryChina
CityShanghai
Period12/15/0912/18/09

Keywords

  • Clock Offsets
  • Clock Skews
  • Clock Synchronization
  • Distributed Systems
  • Filtering and Estimation
  • Network Delays
  • Networked control
  • Sensor Networks

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Modeling and Simulation
  • Control and Optimization

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