A system, comprising: a local terminal configured to be communicatively coupled directly or indirectly with at least two remote terminals via at least three communication links to form one of a ring topology or a mesh topology ; and a controller comprising: a communication link decision unit configured to determine at least one of the at least three communication links as virtually disconnected such that one of the ring topology or the mesh topology of the local terminal and the at least two remote terminals is configured to be converted to a daisy chain topology , wherein a virtually disconnected communication link is a communication link that is hypothetically considered as broken or disconnected by terminals to indicate that only clock information such as timing information embedded in messages exchanged between terminals via such a link should be discarded or not used, even though these terminals may still exchange messages via such a link;, and a clock unit associated with the local terminal , wherein the clock unit is configured to time synchronize the local terminal with at least one of the at least two remote terminals when the local terminal and the at least two remote terminals are configured in the daisy chain topology . a local terminal configured to be communicatively coupled directly or indirectly with at least two remote terminals via at least three communication links to form one of a ring topology or a mesh topology ; and a controller comprising: a communication link decision unit configured to determine at least one of the at least three communication links as virtually disconnected such that one of the ring topology or the mesh topology of the local terminal and the at least two remote terminals is configured to be converted to a daisy chain topology , wherein a virtually disconnected communication link is a communication link that is hypothetically considered as broken or disconnected by terminals to indicate that only clock information such as timing information embedded in messages exchanged between terminals via such a link should be discarded or not used, even though these terminals may still exchange messages via such a link;, and a clock unit associated with the local terminal , wherein the clock unit is configured to time synchronize the local terminal with at least one of the at least two remote terminals when the local terminal and the at least two remote terminals are configured in the daisy chain topology . a communication link decision unit configured to determine at least one of the at least three communication links as virtually disconnected such that one of the ring topology or the mesh topology of the local terminal and the at least two remote terminals is configured to be converted to a daisy chain topology , wherein a virtually disconnected communication link is a communication link that is hypothetically considered as broken or disconnected by terminals to indicate that only clock information such as timing information embedded in messages exchanged between terminals via such a link should be discarded or not used, even though these terminals may still exchange messages via such a link;, and a clock unit associated with the local terminal , wherein the clock unit is configured to time synchronize the local terminal with at least one of the at least two remote terminals when the local terminal and the at least two remote terminals are configured in the daisy chain topology . <EOS>