Absolute Time Synchronization Based on Timing Message Exchange in 5G Wireless Edge

The absolute time synchronization function of 5G wireless edge is essential to ensure the synchronized collaboration of various industrial equipment. In this paper, an absolute time synchronization scheme based on timing message exchange is proposed for 5G wireless edge and frame structure of timing message is designed. The timing message exchange is integrated into random access procedure and message delay is estimated using time advance (TA). The synchronization process is completed with only a small communication cost. The proposed scheme realizes joint estimation of local clock frequency skew and phase offset with high synchronization accuracy and low computational complexity. The simulation results verify effectiveness of the proposed scheme.