Implementation and Evaluation of the Reference Broadcast Infrastructure Synchronization Protocol
TL;DR: This paper describes reference broadcast infrastructure synchronization (RBIS), a clock synchronization protocol for IEEE 802.11 infrastructure wireless networks, especially tailored for industrial and home automation networks, and in many application contexts, it offers several advantages compared with other solutions targeted at similar purposes.
Abstract: This paper describes reference broadcast infrastructure synchronization (RBIS), a clock synchronization protocol for IEEE 802.11 infrastructure wireless networks. The protocol is especially tailored for industrial and home automation networks, and in many application contexts, it offers several advantages compared with other solutions targeted at similar purposes. RBIS has been conceived to rely on conventional Wi-Fi equipment and, in particular, on unmodified access points. It is based on the master/slave approach and follows the receiver/receiver paradigm. An implementation of RBIS—carried out completely in software and based on timestamps taken at the interrupt handler level—has been developed, which achieves a synchronization error below $3\,{\upmu }{\rm s}$ . Then, a simple distributed hard real-time control application has been set up, which consists in two PCs running real-time application interface for Linux (RTAI) and connected through Wi-Fi. The actuation error, measured on the generation of synchronous pulses, is strictly below $13\,{\upmu}{\rm s}$ .
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TL;DR: A new time domain method to extract the envelope of the ultrasonic signals is presented in order to estimate the time-of-flight (TOF) and simulation results show that the method can achieve envelope detection with a good filtering effect by means of the LSM.
Abstract: This paper describes the development and implementation of a robust high-accuracy ultrasonic indoor positioning system (UIPS). The UIPS consists of several wireless ultrasonic beacons in the indoor environment. Each of them has a fixed and known position coordinate and can collect all the transmissions from the target node or emit ultrasonic signals. Every wireless sensor network (WSN) node has two communication modules: one is WiFi, that transmits the data to the server, and the other is the radio frequency (RF) module, which is only used for time synchronization between different nodes, with accuracy up to 1 μ s. The distance between the beacon and the target node is calculated by measuring the time-of-flight (TOF) for the ultrasonic signal, and then the position of the target is computed by some distances and the coordinate of the beacons. TOF estimation is the most important technique in the UIPS. A new time domain method to extract the envelope of the ultrasonic signals is presented in order to estimate the TOF. This method, with the envelope detection filter, estimates the value with the sampled values on both sides based on the least squares method (LSM). The simulation results show that the method can achieve envelope detection with a good filtering effect by means of the LSM. The highest precision and variance can reach 0.61 mm and 0.23 mm, respectively, in pseudo-range measurements with UIPS. A maximum location error of 10.2 mm is achieved in the positioning experiments for a moving robot, when UIPS works on the line-of-sight (LOS) signal.
122 citations
Cites methods from "Implementation and Evaluation of th..."
...The synchronization protocol based on RBS suffers from the uncertainties of the transmission and reception times, as well as the yield synchronization error, which is about 13 μs [30], and cannot meet the requirements of the UIPS....
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TL;DR: This survey looks into the details of synchronization over IEEE 802.11 with a particular focus on the infrastructure mode which is most relevant for industrial use cases and highlights the different parameters which affect the performance of clock synchronization over WLAN and compares the performances of existing synchronization methods to analyze their shortcomings.
Abstract: Just like Ethernet before, IEEE 802.11 is now transcending the borders of its usage from the office environment toward real-time communication on the factory floor. However, similar to Ethernet, the availability of synchronized clocks to coordinate and control communication and distributed real-time services is not a built-in feature in WLAN. Over the years, this has led to the design and use of a wide variety of customized protocols with varying complexity and precision, both for wired and wireless networks, in accordance with the increasingly demanding requirements from real-time applications. This survey looks into the details of synchronization over IEEE 802.11 with a particular focus on the infrastructure mode which is most relevant for industrial use cases. It highlights the different parameters which affect the performance of clock synchronization over WLAN and compares the performance of existing synchronization methods to analyze their shortcomings. Finally, it identifies new trends and directions for future research as well as features for wireless clock synchronization which will be required by the applications in the near future.
108 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce the concepts of cooperative dilution intensity (CDI) and relative CDI to characterize the interaction between agents, which can be interpreted as properties of a random walk over the network.
Abstract: Accurate clock synchronization is required for collaborative operations among nodes across wireless networks. Compared with traditional layer-by-layer methods, cooperative network synchronization techniques lead to significant improvement in performance, efficiency, and robustness. This paper develops a framework for the performance analysis of cooperative network synchronization. We introduce the concepts of cooperative dilution intensity (CDI) and relative CDI to characterize the interaction between agents, which can be interpreted as properties of a random walk over the network. Our approach enables us to derive closed-form asymptotic expressions of performance limits, relating them to the quality of observations as well as the network topology.
89 citations
TL;DR: A reference architecture is introduced, which describes how seamless link-level redundancy can be applied to Wi-Fi and includes two optimizations aimed at improving the quality of wireless communication by avoiding unnecessary replicated transmissions.
Abstract: The adoption of wireless communications and, in particular, Wi-Fi, at the lowest level of the factory automation hierarchy has not increased as fast as expected so far, mainly because of serious issues concerning determinism. Actually, besides the random access scheme, disturbance and interference prevent reliable communication over the air and, as a matter of fact, make wireless networks unable to support distributed real-time control applications properly. Several papers recently appearing in literature suggest that diversity could be leveraged to overcome this limitation effectively. In this paper, a reference architecture is introduced, which describes how seamless link-level redundancy can be applied to Wi-Fi. The framework is general enough to serve as a basis for future protocol enhancements, and also includes two optimizations aimed at improving the quality of wireless communication by avoiding unnecessary replicated transmissions. Some relevant solutions have been analyzed by means of a thorough simulation campaign, in order to highlight their benefits when compared with conventional Wi-Fi. Results show that both packet losses and network latencies improve noticeably.
53 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigates the clock synchronization schemes of active node and overhearing node with immediate clock readjustment and proposes the maximum-likelihood estimators of the clock skew and the corresponding Cramer–Rao lower bounds, derived assuming Gaussian delays.
Abstract: Time synchronization is indispensable for convenient network management, device monitoring, security, and other fundamental operations in industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) Over the past few decades, a wide variety of highly accurate clock synchronization protocols have been investigated by employing powerful statistical signal processing techniques However, most two-way exchange estimation schemes do not readjust the node's local clock upon every resynchronization before the clock parameters are estimated And it may not be appropriate in IWSNs where time synchronization is consistently required Based on the two-way message exchange mechanism, this paper investigates the clock synchronization schemes of active node and overhearing node with immediate clock readjustment The maximum-likelihood estimators of the clock skew and the corresponding Cramer–Rao lower bounds are derived assuming Gaussian delays Simulation and experimental results validate the performance of the proposed estimators
41 citations
References
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09 Dec 2002
TL;DR: Reference Broadcast Synchronization (RBS) as discussed by the authors is a scheme in which nodes send reference beacons to their neighbors using physical-layer broadcasts, and receivers use their arrival time as a point of reference for comparing their clocks.
Abstract: Recent advances in miniaturization and low-cost, low-power design have led to active research in large-scale networks of small, wireless, low-power sensors and actuators. Time synchronization is critical in sensor networks for diverse purposes including sensor data fusion, coordinated actuation, and power-efficient duty cycling. Though the clock accuracy and precision requirements are often stricter than in traditional distributed systems, strict energy constraints limit the resources available to meet these goals.We present Reference-Broadcast Synchronization, a scheme in which nodes send reference beacons to their neighbors using physical-layer broadcasts. A reference broadcast does not contain an explicit timestamp; instead, receivers use its arrival time as a point of reference for comparing their clocks. In this paper, we use measurements from two wireless implementations to show that removing the sender's nondeterminism from the critical path in this way produces high-precision clock agreement (1.85 ± 1.28μsec, using off-the-shelf 802.11 wireless Ethernet), while using minimal energy. We also describe a novel algorithm that uses this same broadcast property to federate clocks across broadcast domains with a slow decay in precision (3.68 ± 2.57μsec after 4 hops). RBS can be used without external references, forming a precise relative timescale, or can maintain microsecond-level synchronization to an external timescale such as UTC. We show a significant improvement over the Network Time Protocol (NTP) under similar conditions.
2,537 citations
03 Nov 2004
TL;DR: The FTSP achieves its robustness by utilizing periodic flooding of synchronization messages, and implicit dynamic topology update and comprehensive error compensation including clock skew estimation, which is markedly better than that of the existing RBS and TPSN algorithms.
Abstract: Wireless sensor network applications, similarly to other distributed systems, often require a scalable time synchronization service enabling data consistency and coordination. This paper describes the Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol (FTSP), especially tailored for applications requiring stringent precision on resource limited wireless platforms. The proposed time synchronization protocol uses low communication bandwidth and it is robust against node and link failures. The FTSP achieves its robustness by utilizing periodic flooding of synchronization messages, and implicit dynamic topology update. The unique high precision performance is reached by utilizing MAC-layer time-stamping and comprehensive error compensation including clock skew estimation. The sources of delays and uncertainties in message transmission are analyzed in detail and techniques are presented to mitigate their effects. The FTSP was implemented on the Berkeley Mica2 platform and evaluated in a 60-node, multi-hop setup. The average per-hop synchronization error was in the one microsecond range, which is markedly better than that of the existing RBS and TPSN algorithms.
2,267 citations
"Implementation and Evaluation of th..." refers background in this paper
...Again, the reason is that the environmental temperature, as well as the traffic caused by nearby Wi-Fi networks operating on the same channel, was not under our control....
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27 Sep 2004
TL;DR: A protocol is provided in this standard that enables precise synchronization of clocks in measurement and control systems implemented with technologies such as network communication, local computing, and distributed objects.
Abstract: A protocol is provided in this standard that enables precise synchronization of clocks in measurement and control systems implemented with technologies such as network communication, local computing, and distributed objects. The protocol is applicable to systems communicating via packet networks. Heterogeneous systems are enabled that include clocks of various inherent precision, resolution, and stability to synchronize. System-wide synchronization accuracy and precision in the sub-microsecond range are supported with minimal network and local clock computing resources. Simple systems are installed and operated without requiring the management attention of users because the default behavior of the protocol allows for it.
1,428 citations
TL;DR: This paper discusses a selection of promising and interesting research areas in the design of protocols and systems for wireless industrial communications that have either emerged as hot topics in the industrial communications community in the last few years, or which could be worthwhile research Topics in the next few years.
Abstract: In this paper we discuss a selection of promising and interesting research areas in the design of protocols and systems for wireless industrial communications. We have selected topics that have either emerged as hot topics in the industrial communications community in the last few years (like wireless sensor networks), or which could be worthwhile research topics in the next few years (for example cooperative diversity techniques for error control, cognitive radio/opportunistic spectrum access for mitigation of external interferences).
696 citations
31 May 2005
TL;DR: Key issues coming up in wireless fieldbus and wireless industrial communication systems are discussed: fundamental problems like achieving timely and reliable transmission despite channel errors; the usage of existing wireless technologies for this specific field of applications; and the creation of hybrid systems in which wireless stations are incorporated into existing wired systems.
Abstract: With the success of wireless technologies in consumer electronics, standard wireless technologies are envisioned for the deployment in industrial environments as well. Industrial applications involving mobile subsystems or just the desire to save cabling make wireless technologies attractive. Nevertheless, these applications often have stringent requirements on reliability and timing. In wired environments, timing and reliability are well catered for by fieldbus systems (which are a mature technology designed to enable communication between digital controllers and the sensors and actuators interfacing to a physical process). When wireless links are included, reliability and timing requirements are significantly more difficult to meet, due to the adverse properties of the radio channels. In this paper, we thus discuss some key issues coming up in wireless fieldbus and wireless industrial communication systems: 1) fundamental problems like achieving timely and reliable transmission despite channel errors; 2) the usage of existing wireless technologies for this specific field of applications; and 3) the creation of hybrid systems in which wireless stations are incorporated into existing wired systems.
693 citations