Title
Tap: A High-Precision Network Timing Method Over Air Interface Based On Physical-Layer Signals
Abstract
Absolute time synchronization (timing) is a constant demand in various fields. There are many timing techniques at present. They are mainly based on dedicated equipments such as GNSS or specific protocols such as NTP, PTP, SIB16, etc. Different timing methods are applied according to the scenario, cost and demands for timing accuracy. Recently, the timing demands for some wireless scenarios have become increasingly urgent, like power IoT and auto-driving. However, due to the instability and complexity of radio link, the current methods can hardly meet the demands of high-precision and low cost simultaneously in mobile network. Here we propose a timing method over air interface based on physical layer signals (TAP). Periodic physical layer signals in both downlink and uplink channel are considered to reduce the impact of radio link instability on timing. We implemented the proposed method on an open source LTE software defined radio platform named OpenAirInterface and conducted a series of tests. Our tests prove that TAP can provide microsecond-level timing over the air interface, and it is more stable and precise than PTP. Further simulation shows that using TAP in 5G NR can improve the timing accuracy.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2958114
IEEE ACCESS
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Air interface, high-precision timing, IoT, physical layer, time synchronization
Journal
7
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
2169-3536
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Chenyu Zhang101.69
Wei Zheng234230.46
Xiangming Wen361882.20
Zhaoming Lu416853.12
Luhan Wang586.56
Zhengying Wang600.34