Patent ID: 8868789

Claim:
A method for synchronizing local clocks in a distributed computer network, where said computer network comprises a number of components that are connected to each other via bi-directional communication links, characterized in that a) an a priori configured set of at least one generating component of the network synchronization messages and sends the synchronization messages to the network; b) an a priori configured set of at least one consuming component consumes the synchronization messages; c) one or more message-relaying components in between the generating component and the consuming component will add a delay value to the synchronization messages reflecting the delay imposed by the one or more message-relaying components; and d) each consuming component will delay the synchronization messages upon reception by the consuming component for a duration that is calculated by an a priori configured value for the maximum transmission delay (“Maximum Transmission Delay”) minus the value of the sum of all delay values added to the synchronization messages before further usage of the synchronization messages in the synchronization process of the consuming component, wherein an a priori defined set of at least one of the consuming components is configured to act as so-called Compression Master, and wherein one or more Compression Master are provided in the network, and wherein the Compression Master groups a multitude of synchronization messages and generates a new synchronization message from the grouped multitude of synchronization messages, and sends the generated new synchronization message to some of its attached communication links, and wherein each Compression Master; starts a grouping process when the Compression Master receives a permanent synchronization message with an Integration Cycle Field where no grouping process is already started; ends a grouping process after the duration of an observation window after the start of the grouping process if the number of received permanent synchronization messages is one; ends a grouping process, for n>0, at n+1 times of the duration of the observation window after the start of the grouping process when the number of received permanent synchronization messages at (n+1 times the duration of the observation window) is equal to the number of received permanent synchronization messages at (n times the duration of the observation window), if during the last observation window no more permanent synchronization message with matching Integration Cycle Field is received; and ends a grouping process at f times of the duration of the observation window latest, where f is a configurable parameter.