Patent ID: 8108558

Claim:
A method for synchronizing clocks in a network comprising a plurality of nodes that includes at least one receiving node and at least one transmitting node, wherein at least two of said plurality of nodes can communicate with each other and each have a local clock, the method comprising: receiving, in the receiving node, from the transmitting node, a global time of said transmitting node transmitted by said transmitting node; determining or estimating a global time of said receiving node as a function of both the received global time of said transmitting node and of a local time of the receiving node's own local clock; determining or estimating, in at least a first and a second of said plurality of nodes, which may, but does not have to include said receiving node and said transmitting node, a transformation of pre-set characteristics of the respective first and second node's own local time to characteristics of a global clock in such a way that at least one such deviation amount is determined in each of said first and second nodes as a behavior of a ratio between each respective first and second node's own local clock and each respective first and second node's own global clock; and utilizing the deviation amount of one of said first or second nodes in at least one other of said plurality of nodes as an input value for a local state estimation in at least this at least one other node of said plurality of nodes.