Patent ID: 8014423

Claim:
A method for distributing a reference time in a network having a plurality of nodes, the method comprising the steps of: generating a network-wide time signal using a reference time generator; distributing the network-wide time signal over the network to the plurality of nodes wherein each node is configured to generate different synchronization signals for different applications connected thereto; measuring a signal propagation delay of the network-wide time signal between the reference time generator and each of the plurality of nodes, the step of measuring further characterized by the steps of: maintaining a network-wide time signal as a network cycle master signal at a designated cycle master node of the plurality of nodes of the network; maintaining a local cycle master signal at each respective node of the network; and determining the signal propagation delay at each respective node from the difference between the respective local cycle master signal and the network cycle master signal; generating, at each respective node, local synchronization signals using the measured signal propagation delay of the respective node, each of the generated local synchronization signals being required by a respective application; and synchronizing the timing of each node for the respective applications using the respective local synchronization signals.