Implementation of Symbol Timing Recovery for Estimation of Clock Skew

TL;DR

This paper proposes a cross-layer time synchronization method using symbol timing recovery at the physical layer to estimate clock skew, reducing message exchanges and saving energy in distributed networks.

Contribution

It introduces a novel cross-layer approach that accurately estimates hardware clock skew through physical layer symbol timing recovery, enhancing synchronization efficiency.

Findings

Clock skew at physical layer equals application layer skew.

Simulation and experiments confirm the effectiveness of the method.

Multiple message exchanges improve skew estimation precision.

Abstract

Time synchronization in any distributed network can be achieved by using application layer protocols for time correction. Time synchronization method proposed in this article uses symbol timing recovery at the physical layer to correct application layer clock. This cross layer methodology diminishes the quantity of message trades needed by application layer for time synchronization thus resulting in energy saving. Precision of skew estimate can be increased by using multiple message exchanges. Examination of the cross layer strategy including the simulation results, the experimentation outcomes and mathematical analysis demonstrates that clock skew at physical layer is same as of application layer, which is actually the skew of hardware clock within the node.