An Overview of Clock Synchronization Algorithms and their Uses in Aerospace and Automotive Systems 2013-36-0541

Current systems such as satellites, aircrafts, automobiles, turbines, power controls and traffic controls are becoming increasingly complex and/or highly integrated as prescribed by the SAE-ARP-4754a Standard. Such systems operate in a real time distributed environment which frequently requires a common knowledge of time among different devices, levels and granularities. So, temporal correctness is mostly needed, besides logical correctness. It can be achieved by hardware clocks and devices, software clocks and algorithms, or both, to avoid or tolerate, within appropriate margins, the time faults or failures that may occur in aerospace and automotive systems. This paper presents an overview of clock synchronization algorithms and their uses in aerospace and automotive systems. It is based on a review of the literature, discussion and comparison of some clock synchronization algorithms with different policies. The comparison of clock synchronization algorithms is made considering the most common time faults and failures that may occur in aerospace and automotive systems. This intends to help the designer to choose clock synchronization algorithms suitable for time synchronization of aerospace and automotive systems.