Initial over-the-air performance assessment of ranging and clock synchronization using radio frequency signal exchange

Bidigare, Patrick; Pruessing, Scott; Raeman, David; Scherber, Dzul; Madhow, Upamanyu; Mudumbai, Raghuraman

doi:10.1109/ssp.2012.6319680

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Experimentally, over-the-air, distributed time synchronization necessary to support targeted coherent transmissions has been demonstrated [13] and shortrange, stationary, over-the-air tests on SDR platforms have been conducted [14]. This report documents what the authors believe to be the first multi-kilometer demonstration of coherent distributed communications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Coherent Distributed Techniques for Tactical Radio Networks: Enabling Long Range Communications with Reduced Size, Weight, Power and Cost

Scherber

Bidigare

O'Donnell

et al. 2013

MILCOM 2013 - 2013 IEEE Military Communications Conference

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Abstract-This paper addresses the use of distributed coherent communication techniques across a wireless network of tactical radios to enable extended-range communications. Conventional tactical communication systems providing multikilometer terrestrial ranges utilize large and costly manpack or vehicular-mount radios. In this paper we discuss techniques for distributing the transmit functions coherently across a network of small, low-power squad radios to achieve similar ranges. We present a testbed implementation of these techniques and overthe-air demonstrations of coherent distributed transmit communications at 3.5 km standoff and 1.25Mbps data rates using radios operating with under 20dBm of transmit power each. *

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Coherent Distributed Techniques for Tactical Radio Networks: Enabling Long Range Communications with Reduced Size, Weight, Power and Cost

Scherber

Bidigare

O'Donnell

et al. 2013

MILCOM 2013 - 2013 IEEE Military Communications Conference

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“…It was shown in [33] that, by using a two-step maximum-likelihood estimator, the narrowband CRLB could be achieved for these values of system parameters. The experimental results reported in [34] with similar signaling parameters in an outdoor environment and with off-the-shelf hardware yielded RMS delay estimation errors of less than 10 ps. While the proposed timestamp-free synchronization protocol can be used by directly applying the offset estimates calculated in (5) for local clock correction at each slave node, better synchronization accuracy can be achieved through repeated bidirectional exchanges with the master node and filtering of the delay estimates.…”

Section: Delay Estimation and Filteringmentioning

confidence: 77%

Precise timestamp-free network synchronization

Brown

Klein

2013

2013 47th Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS)

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Abstract-This paper describes an approach to master/slave network synchronization based on bidirectional message exchanges without the use of timestamps. Rather than the usual approach of exchanging digital timestamps through a dedicated synchronization protocol, an approach is described in which synchronization information is conveyed implicitly at the physical layer through the timing of the master node's responses to the slave nodes. This approach can reduce overhead and allow the embedding of synchronization functions in existing network traffic. A timestamp-free synchronization protocol is described and its performance is quantified in the presence of delay estimation error and stochastic local oscillator dynamics. A filtering framework is also developed to allow each slave node to accurately infer and correct local clock drifts from multiple noisy clock offset estimates. Based on fundamental delay estimation bounds for narrowband signals, numerical results show that synchronization among the slave nodes can be achieved quickly and that the resulting steady-state accuracy can be sufficient to support distributed transmission techniques requiring carrier phase alignment, e.g. distributed beamforming.

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“…The proposed work is primarily motivated by the two-way ranging system demonstrated in [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. In these publications, the authors demonstrated a high-precision, two-way ranging prototype and explore tractable time-of-arrival estimation techniques.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we use an extended version of NTP that jointly estimates clock parameters and ToF [ 15 ]. Similar ranging and synchronization systems have been considered previously [ 17 ] but have not yet been applied to modern hardware platforms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communications and High-Precision Positioning (CHP2): Hardware Architecture, Implementation, and Validation

Herschfelt

et al. 2023

Sensors

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Spectral congestion and modern consumer applications motivate radio technologies that efficiently cooperate with nearby users and provide several services simultaneously. We designed and implemented a joint positioning-communications system that simultaneously enables network communications, timing synchronization, and localization to a variety of airborne and ground-based platforms. This Communications and High-Precision Positioning (CHP2) system simultaneously performs communications and precise ranging (<10 cm) with a narrow band waveform (10 MHz) at a carrier frequency of 915 MHz (US ISM) or 783 MHz (EU Licensed). The ranging capability may be extended to estimate the relative position and orientation by leveraging the spatial diversity of the multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) platforms. CHP2 also digitally synchronizes distributed platforms with sub-nanosecond precision without support from external systems (GNSS, GPS, etc.). This performance is enabled by leveraging precise time-of-arrival (ToA) estimation techniques, a network synchronization algorithm, and the intrinsic cooperation in the joint processing chain that executes these tasks simultaneously. In this manuscript, we describe the CHP2 system architecture, hardware implementation, and in-lab and over-the-air experimental validation.

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Initial over-the-air performance assessment of ranging and clock synchronization using radio frequency signal exchange

Cited by 16 publications

References 7 publications

Coherent Distributed Techniques for Tactical Radio Networks: Enabling Long Range Communications with Reduced Size, Weight, Power and Cost

Coherent Distributed Techniques for Tactical Radio Networks: Enabling Long Range Communications with Reduced Size, Weight, Power and Cost

Precise timestamp-free network synchronization

Communications and High-Precision Positioning (CHP2): Hardware Architecture, Implementation, and Validation

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