The Reference-Broadcast Infrastructure Synchronization Protocol

RBS is a well-known synchronization protocol that has been conceived mainly for the use in wireless networks. Unfortunately, it is probably not the best choice when hybrid wired/wireless industrial networks have to be set up. In this paper a simple modification has been presented for RBS, we called RBIS, which is based on a masterslave approach and requires that the underlying network be an infrastructure WLAN. Besides achieving every single wireless sub-network to be synchronized easily with an external time source on the wired backbone by means of, e.g., IEEE 1588, it can be implemented by using conventional WiFi equipment. Moreover, it features interesting timing accuracy and robustness.