Synchronization Performance of the Precision Time Protocol in Industrial Automation Networks

This paper analyzes the factors that affect the synchronization performance in peer-to-peer precision time protocol (PTP). We first study the influence of frequency drift in the absence of jitter and compare the gravity of the master drift with that of the slave drift. Then, we study the influence of jitter under the assumption of constant frequencies and the effect of averaging. The analytic formulas provide a theoretical ground for understanding the simulation results, some of which are presented, as well as the guidelines for choosing both system and control parameters.