A Distributed Time Synchronization Solution without Satellite Time Reference for Mobile Communication

Synchronization is one of the most important issues for telecommunication. Some 3G and LTE mobile communication systems require high-accuracy time synchronization between neighboring base stations. Existing synchronization solutions rely heavily on the satellite time service system, such as GPS, as the common time reference. In the event that satellite systems become unavailable, time synchronization in a wide area would be lost. In this paper, a distributed time synchronization solution is proposed without relying on satellite time reference. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed solution converges fast and can realize high-accuracy time synchronization for large-scale networks.