A real-time implementation of precise timestamp-free network synchronization

This paper describes a real-time implementation of precise synchronization between a master and slave node. The nodes were both implemented on separate Texas Instruments DSP boards with real-time software implemented in C. Timestamp-free synchronization is performed implicitly through the timing of the master node´s responses to the slave node. The slave node tracks and predicts the master node´s clock through precise time of arrival estimation and Kalman filtering of the estimates. Experimental results demonstrate the slave node is able to consistently predict the master node´s clock offset to within a few nanoseconds over one second prediction intervals.