Scalable and Passive Wireless Network Clock Synchronization in LOS Environments

Clock synchronization is ubiquitous in wireless systems for communication, sensing, and control. In this paper, we design a scalable system in which an indefinite number of passively receiving wireless units can synchronize to a single master clock at the level of discrete clock ticks. Accurate sync...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on wireless communications 2017-06, Vol.16 (6), p.3536-3546
Main Authors: Zachariah, Dave, Dwivedi, Satyam, Handel, Peter, Stoica, Petre
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clock synchronization
Clocks
Communications systems
Control systems
Delay
Design analysis
Design engineering
Detection
Line of sight communication
nanosecond accuracy
Nanostructure
Position (location)
Protocols
Signal resolution
Synchronism
Synchronization
Ticks
Wireless communications
wireless localization
Wireless networks
Wireless sensor networks
Wireless time synchronization
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Summary:Clock synchronization is ubiquitous in wireless systems for communication, sensing, and control. In this paper, we design a scalable system in which an indefinite number of passively receiving wireless units can synchronize to a single master clock at the level of discrete clock ticks. Accurate synchronization requires an estimate of the node positions to compensate the time-of-flight transmission delay in line-of-sight environments. If such information is available, the framework developed here takes position uncertainties into account. In the absence of such information, as in indoor scenarios, we propose an auxiliary localization mechanism. Furthermore, we derive the Cramer-Rao bounds for the system, which show that it enables synchronization accuracy at sub-nanosecond levels. Finally, we develop and evaluate an online estimation method, which is statistically efficient.
ISSN:1536-1276
1558-2248
1558-2248
DOI:10.1109/TWC.2017.2683486