Method for compensating for internal delays within each node and transmission delays between the nodes

1. A method for compensating for one or more transmission delays between a multiplexer, a first node and a second node, comprising:

calculating a transmission delay between the multiplexer and the first node using an equation (RTC K +Delay K )mod(M·T slot )=(K−1)·T slot , where M refers to the number of time slots within a bandwidth of a medium configured for communicating data between the multiplexer, the first node and the second node, T slot refers to the duration of each time slot, K refers to a node address, mod refers to a modulo operation, RTC K refers to the real time clock of the K th node and Delay K refers to accumulated transmission delay from the multiplexer to the K th node;

sending the real time clock of the multiplexer, a first number and the transmission delay to the first node; and

setting the real time clock of the first node to be equal to the real time clock of the multiplexer plus the transmission delay.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending data to the multiplexer earlier by an amount of time defined by the transmission delay.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating a transmission delay between the first node and the second node using the equation.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

incrementing the first number by one to generate a second number; and

sending to the second node the real time clock of the multiplexer, the second number, the transmission delay between the multiplexer and the first node, and the transmission delay between the first node and the second node.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising setting the real time clock of the second node to be equal to the real time clock of the multiplexer plus the transmission delay between the multiplexer and the first node plus the transmission delay between the first node and the second node.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising sending data to the multiplexer earlier by an amount of time defined by the transmission delay between the multiplexer and the first node plus the transmission delay between the first node and the second node.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmission delay comprises a delay caused by an internal processing of data within the first node.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the transmission delay between the multiplexer and the first node comprises measuring the difference between the arrival time of data from the first node at the multiplexer and the arrival time calculated using the equation.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein calculating the transmission delay between the multiplexer and the first node further comprises calculating the transmission delay between the multiplexer and the first node using the measured difference.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting a network address for the first node to be equal to the first number.

11. The method of claim 3 , wherein calculating the transmission delay between the first node and the second node comprises measuring the difference between the arrival time of data from the second node at the first node and the arrival time calculated using from the equation.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein calculating the transmission delay between the first node and the second node further comprises calculating the transmission delay between the first node and the second node using the measured difference.

13. A method for compensating for one or more transmission delays between a multiplexer, a first node and a second node, comprising:

synchronizing a first real time clock of the multiplexer as the real time clock of the first node and as the real time clock of the second node;

receiving data from the first node;

calculating a transmission delay between the multiplexer and the first node using an equation (RTC K +Delay K )mod(M·T slot)=(K− 1)·T slot , where M refers to the number of time slots within a bandwidth of a medium configured for communicating data between the multiplexer, the first node and the second node, T slot refers to the duration of each time slot, K refers to a node address, mod refers to a modulo operation, RTC K refers to the real time clock of the K th node and Delay K refers to accumulated transmission delay from the multiplexer to the K th node;

sending a second real time clock of the multiplexer, a first number and the transmission delay to the first node; and

setting the real time clock of the first node to be equal to the second real time clock of the multiplexer plus the transmission delay.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising sending data to the multiplexer earlier by an amount of time defined by the transmission delay.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein synchronizing the first real time clock of the multiplexer as the real time clock of the first node and as the real time clock of the second node comprises:

sending the first real time clock of the multiplexer and the first number to the first node;

setting the real time clock of the first node as the first real time clock of the multiplexer;

generating a second number;

sending the first real time clock of the multiplexer and the second number to the second node; and

setting the real time clock of the second node to be equal to the first real time clock of the multiplexer.