Efficient,and scalable IEEE 802.11 ad-hoc-mode timing synchronization function

The IEEE 802.11 standards support the peer-to-peer mode independent basic service set (IBSS), which is an ad hoc network with all its stations within each other´s transmission range. In an IBSS, it is important that all stations are synchronized to a common clock. Synchronization is needed for frequency hopping and power saving. The synchronization mechanism specified in the IEEE 802.11 standards has a severe scalability problem. The probability that stations may get out of synchronization is pretty high in large IBSS. A new synchronization algorithm has been proposed for large-scale ad hoc networks. We propose a more efficient algorithm in this paper that synchronizes the clock more accurately. We are able to synchronize the clock within 100 /spl mu/s when the number of stations is more than 300. This is a big improvement over the current best algorithm and the 802.11 specified protocol. To our best knowledge, the current best algorithm can synchronize the clock within 550 /spl mu/s for a 300-station network. The 802.11 standard protocol can have clock drift over 5000 /spl mu/s for the same network.