Time and Frequency Transfer by the Master-Slave Returnable Timing System Technique - Application to Solar Power Transmission

Abstract

A classical method of transfering time and frequency from one network node to another is the Master-Slave (MS) technique. This method, though fairly simple and easy to implement, is plagued with the problems introduced by the variable propagation path delays between network nodes. The master slave returnable timing system (MSRTS) technique presented in this paper offers the flexibility and simplicity of the well established MS approach; however, it provides for a novel automatic delay compensation feature. Delay compensation between two nodes is achieved by measuring the delay between the two nodes and then using this knowledge about the delay to automatically update the phase of the transmitting node such that the phase at the receiving node is independent of the delay between the two nodes. A theory and analysis of this system is presented here in a noise free environment and an extension is made to cover the propagation of internally generated noise (clock phase noise) through the network.