Time Synchronization Performance Analysis and Simulation of a kind of wireless TDMA Network

In this paper we introduce a kind of wireless TDMA network. Active synchronization mode and passive synchronization mode are supported in this TDMA network. In the network the system time is provided by time reference (TR) which is a special node. TR transmits a special message called initial entry at the first slot of each frame. The other node which receives the initial entry will adopt different synchronization mode according to its user category. The primary users use active synchronization mode, which is achieved by exchanging round trip timing (RTT) messages. According to the calculation of time of arrival (TOA) value, this mode can make the user have high timing level directly. Secondary users use passive synchronization mode, which is achieved by continuously receiving the position information (PI) messages from synchronized nodes. This mode can provide low level time synchronization as a byproduct of navigation. In simulation based on OPNET, we tested the timing performance of the two synchronization modes with the effect of the number of geodetic reference (GR), nodes moving speed and PI messages update rate