Implementation of a PTP Bridge to Extend IEEE 1588 to Zigbee Networks

In distributed environments, the coordination of distributed entities and events requires time synchronization. Precision time synchronization supports a variety of extensions of applications. The IEEE 1588 precision time protocol (PTP) provides a standard method to synchronize devices in a network with sub-microsecond precision. This paper includes the design and implementation of a PTP bridge to extend IEEE 1588 over Ethernet to Zigbee networks. To achieve precision between both networks, we analyze the characteristics of both networks with the aim of minimizing the differences and error factors. In addition, this paper presents the experiments and performance evaluation of time synchronization using a PTP bridge between Zigbee networks via Ethernet. The results show that time synchronization using the PTP bridge can result in a deviation as low as 300 nanoseconds from the time reference.