Patent ID: 8681915

Claim:
A method for transmitting synchronization messages (SM) in a communications network including a plurality of nodes comprising a first node and at least one second node, the method comprising the steps of: generating, by the first node, first clock count states according to a reference clock frequency of a reference clock; generating, by the at least one second node, second clock count states according to an internal clock frequency of an internal clock; transmitting synchronization messages, starting from the first node, successively from one node of the plurality of nodes to another node of the plurality of nodes, each synchronization message containing time information for synchronizing the internal clock of the at least one second node with the reference clock; updating, in the at least one second node, time information of the synchronization message, based on a delay time, to the transmission time of the synchronization message in a respective second node; pre-defining compensation intervals based on sequential compensation time points in at least part of the at least one second node, so that adjustment of at least one time segment of the delay time according to the internal clock frequency of the respective second node to the reference clock frequency is performable by changing the second clock count states; subdividing each compensation interval into smaller compensation timespans based on a number of second compensation time points; recording a number of overshoots of the first and second compensation time points through the at least one time segment; determining, for the at least one time segment, a compensated time value in which a time value according to a number of second clock count states counted within the at least one time segment is changed by a product of the number of overshoots and a compensation time unit corresponding to a duration period of the internal clock frequency of the respective second node divided by a number of compensation timespans within a compensation time interval; and updating the time information in the synchronization message based on the compensated time value.