Patent ID: 8509215

Claim:
A method for programming the delay for a node in a communication system, the method comprising: receiving a selected delay value for the node, wherein the selected delay value identifies a desired end-to-end transport delay between the node and a host node in the communication system; receiving a signal path delay value at the node, wherein the signal path delay value identifies a delay for signals communicated between the node and the host node, the signal path delay value comprising an aggregation of at least one transport delay calculated by at least one node for at least one segment of the communication system between the node and the host node, wherein each transport delay of the at least one transport delay identifies travel time between two adjacent nodes in the communication system; and calculating an additional delay necessary to meet the selected delay value based on the signal path delay value and the selected delay value, wherein calculating the additional delay comprises subtracting the signal path delay from the selected delay value.