Time synchronization in the DHT-based P2P network Kad for real-time automation scenarios

In this paper, an approach to synchronize the P2P network Kad to be applied in automation scenarios is presented. The approach bases on a deterministic algorithm to synchronize the network, which is required for hard real-time applications. Todays Industrial Ethernet solutions include and support machine to machine communication in automation scenarios. However, instead of allowing direct communication, the communication relies on centralized structures, which are deficient in resilience and scalability However, instead of allowing direct communication, the communication relies on centralized structures. The presented decentralized approach benefits from nodes helping to synchronize the network. However, the higher the number of helping nodes the higher is the time deviation on the nodes of the network, which contrary results in a higher time error. Therefore, a trade-off between synchronization performance and time error has to be determined to meet predefined constraints depending on the application scenario. Moreover, the individual clock drift of every device is considered to define necessary re-synchronization intervals of the network. Additionally, the optimum number of nodes to synchronize the Kad based network has been identified and the resulting synchronization performance and generated traffic are determined. Furthermore, an approach is presented to handle the dynamic churn of nodes.