Precision of Pulse-Coupled Oscillator Synchronization on FPGA-Based Radios

Günther Brandner, Johannes Klinglmayr, Udo Schilcher, Dominik Egarter, and
Christian Bettstetter

University of Klagenfurt

The precision of synchronization algorithms based on the theory of 
pulse-coupled oscillators is evaluated on FPGA-based radios for the 
first time. Measurements show that such algorithms can reach precision 
in the low microsecond range when being implemented in the physical layer. 
Furthermore, we propose an algorithm extension accounting for phase rate 
deviations of the hardware and show that an improved precision below one 
microsecond is possible with this extension in the given setup. 
The resulting algorithm can thus be applied in ad hoc wireless systems 
for fully distributed synchronization of transmission slots or sleep cycles, 
in particular, if centralized synchronization is impossible.