Clock Synchronization Over Networks Identifiability of the Sawtooth Model

📝 Original Paper Info

- Title: Clock synchronization over networks -- Identifiability of the sawtooth model
- ArXiv ID: 1906.08208
- Date: 2020-03-03
- Authors: Pol del Aguila Pla and Lissy Pellaco and Satyam Dwivedi and Peter H andel and Joakim Jald en

📝 Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the two-node joint clock synchronization and ranging problem. We focus on the case of nodes that employ time-to-digital converters to determine the range between them precisely. This specific design choice leads to a sawtooth model for the captured signal, which has not been studied before from an estimation theoretic standpoint. In the study of this model, we recover the basic conclusion of a well-known article by Freris, Graham, and Kumar in clock synchronization. More importantly, we discover a surprising identifiability result on the sawtooth signal model: noise improves the theoretical condition of the estimation of the phase and offset parameters. To complete our study, we provide performance references for joint clock synchronization and ranging using the sawtooth signal model by presenting an exhaustive simulation study on basic estimation strategies under different realistic conditions. With our contributions in this paper, we enable further research in the estimation of sawtooth signal models and pave the path towards their industrial use for clock synchronization and ranging.

💡 Summary & Analysis

This paper focuses on the joint clock synchronization and ranging problem between two nodes, where time-to-digital converters are used to determine precise distances. The design choice leads to a sawtooth model for captured signals, which has not been studied from an estimation theory perspective before. The research team revisits fundamental conclusions about clock synchronization by Freris, Graham, and Kumar while making a surprising discovery: noise actually improves the theoretical conditions for estimating phase and offset parameters in the sawtooth signal model. To validate their findings, they conducted extensive simulations under various realistic conditions to provide performance benchmarks for joint clock synchronization and ranging using this novel model. This work opens up new avenues for research on estimating sawtooth signal models and paves the way towards industrial applications for accurate clock synchronization and ranging.

📄 Full Paper Content (ArXiv Source)

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