Granted Patent B2

US 12,235,674 · App. 18/223,281 · Granted Feb 25, 2025

Inventors: Oliver Hoeftberger (Eggelsberg, AT); Franz Profelt (Eggelsberg, AT)

Assignee: B&R INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION GMBH

G06F1/12G06F1/14

Abstract

Claims (22)

1. A method for the time synchronization between at least one master and at least one slave in a network,

wherein the at least one master predefines a master time and sends at least one synchronization message with the master time via the network to the at least one slave,

wherein the at least one slave, on which a slave time is running, uses the synchronization message to adjust the slave time to the master time using synchronization, and

wherein the at least one slave is an interrupt-capable network device of the network and uses a timer, which accesses the slave time to generate at least one interrupt, which is repeated at a predefined cycle duration, at a respective trigger point in time that is synchronized with the slave time,

wherein, when a synchronization message arrives, a time offset between the master time and the slave time is determined in the slave,

wherein a time fraction of the time offset is determined, the time fraction corresponding to an integer multiple of the predefined cycle duration of the at least one interrupt,

wherein an interrupt offset is determined from the time fraction and the time offset;

wherein at least one time jump is carried out by a synchronization unit in the slave to correct the time offset;

wherein a first trigger point in time of the at least one interrupt following the at least one time jump is set in such a way that the first trigger point in time following the at least one time jump is offset by the predefined cycle duration in relation to the last trigger point in time prior to the at least one time jump;

and wherein a number of trigger points in time of the at least one interrupt which follow the at least one time jump is temporally shifted by an adaptation duration, the adaptation duration for each trigger point in time of the number of the trigger points in time following the at least one time jump being selected from a time range in such a way that the adaptation duration corresponds at most to the interrupt offset and at most to a predefined temporal deviation, and that the sum of all adaptation durations for the number of the trigger points in time following the at least one time jump corresponds to the interrupt offset, taking a predefined tolerance value into consideration.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the interrupt-capable network component is configured as a further network with a further master, wherein the at least one master of the network predefines the master time to the further master of the further network.

3. A network comprised of a plurality of network components, wherein, with respect to a time synchronization, at least one network component is a master with a master time and at least one further network component is a slave with a slave time,

wherein the master is designed to send at least one synchronization message to the slave, and the slave is designed to adjust the slave time to the master time using synchronization, and

wherein at least one network component is an interrupt-capable network component, which has a timer to access the slave time in order to generate at least one interrupt, which recurs at predefined cycle durations, at a respective trigger point in time that is synchronized with the slave time,

wherein the interrupt-capable network component has a synchronization unit, which is designed to carry out:

determining a time offset between the master time and the slave time when a synchronization message arrives;

determining a time fraction of the time offset, the time fraction corresponding to an integer multiple of the predefined cycle duration of the at least one interrupt;

determining an interrupt offset from the time fraction and the time offset;

carrying out at least one time jump to correct the time offset between the master time and the slave time;

setting a first trigger point in time for the at least one interrupt which follows the at least one time jump in such a way that the first trigger point in time following the at least one time jump is offset by the predefined cycle duration in relation to the last trigger point in time prior to the at least one time jump; and

temporally shifting a number of trigger points in time of the at least one interrupt which follow the at least one time jump by an adaptation duration, wherein the adaptation duration for each trigger point in time of the number of trigger points in time following the at least one time jump is selected from a time range in such a way that the adaptation duration corresponds at most to the interrupt offset and at most to a predefined temporal deviation, and that a sum of all adaptation durations for the number of trigger points in time following the at least one time jump corresponds to the interrupt offset, taking a predefined tolerance value into consideration.

4. The network according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one interrupt-capable network component is configured as a further network with a further master, wherein the at least one master of the network is designed to predefine the master time to the further master of the further network.

Assignments (2)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (21)