Timing-As-A-Service (TAAS): Over-the-Air Synchronization method for Industrial IoT

This paper presents a new device model termed as ‘Smart Precision Time Protocol (s-PTP) gateway’. This gateway creates a logical interface between the cellular systems (5G, 5G+, etc.) and the Industrial IoT (IIoT) systems. The goal of this gateway is to synchronize IIoT use cases located inside a factory. It is based on a novel business and operational model that we termed as “Timing-As-A-Service (TAAS)”. TAAS aims to provide the industrial customers, particularly small and medium businesses, with high precision timing accuracy for Industry 4.0 and future Industry 5.0 use cases. Simulation results illustrate the solution's effectiveness, which shows that the 90th percentile timing error falls below the stringent threshold of 900 ns for IIoT use cases defined by 3GPP, even up to distances of 3km.