Time synchronization problem with three slave base stations for one primary base station

I want to use the DW1000 to do wireless clock synchronization, where can I find a solution for one primary base station and three secondary base stations.
thanks for your replies!

UWB is an excellent technology for time transfer, the sharing of a common time among physically dispersed devices. It is theoretically possible to get down to incredibly small time errors between nodes, depending on the hardware and software design of the system.

Exactly what your application requires isn’t clear from your post. There’s a big difference between needing microsecond, nanosecond, and picosecond levels of time transfer. There is also a big difference between time stamping events (what time did something happen) versus generating synchronized clocks (a steady in sync clock generator).

One of the capabilities lacking in the DW1000 is the ability to capture the SYS_TIME value with an external trigger, or to output a compare match signal. You can create external hardware to provide those functions, but it is a bit tricky depending on how precise you want to be.

As part of our MultiTime location algorithm (similar to TDoA), we have to synchronize all the anchors to a common time model. We can usually achieve synchronization to a few picoseconds. This can involve hundreds of anchors spread over a wide area all sharing a common seamless model of time. This is not an easy thing to do and requires heavy duty mathematics and understanding the deep characteristics of the clocks on each node.

In short, I would need to know more about your application requirements to suggest a concept that will work for you and to provide some guidance on the effort it will require to achieve it.

Mike Ciholas, President, Ciholas, Inc
3700 Bell Road, Newburgh, IN 47630 USA
mikec@ciholas.com
+1 812 962 9408

Is it possible to synchronize the clock with one slave base station and three slave base stations? What I want is a complete wireless clock synchronization solution.

There are many definitions of “synchronize”. You need to more precisely define what you want and how accurately you want it if you hope to gather any useful insights from others. We can’t read your mind to know what you want.

Depending on what your functional and accuracy requirements are, the technical challenge goes from relatively simple to very complex.

The ultimate standard is all the clocks at all the nodes are locked in frequency and phase to a few picoseconds. This will require custom hardware, custom protocols, and custom software to achieve, but UWB using Decawave does have the underlying properties to support such a task. You can back off the complexity by reducing the accuracy requirements and moving from synchronized clocks to clocks whose differences are mathematically modeled.

Our TDoA like RTLS system, MultiTime, models hundreds of nodes to within a few picoseconds. This is not a trivial task. The next level up, output a synchronized clock signal, requires some form of adjustable clock generator and hardware to support it.

Mike Ciholas, President, Ciholas, Inc
3700 Bell Road, Newburgh, IN 47630 USA
mikec@ciholas.com
+1 812 962 9408