Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals

From	Don Y <this@isnotme.com>
Newsgroups	comp.arch.embedded, sci.electronics.design, comp.realtime
Subject	Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals
Date	2013-08-03 13:21 -0700
Organization	Aioe.org NNTP Server
Message-ID	<ktjop2$5tg$1@speranza.aioe.org> (permalink)
References	<kticf7$hg3$1@speranza.aioe.org> <51fd247c$0$64328$c3e8da3$5e5e430d@news.astraweb.com> <b64rj8Fd0uiU1@mid.individual.net> <ktjl2v$ruf$1@speranza.aioe.org> <b655bvFf69hU1@mid.individual.net>

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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Hi Joerg,

On 8/3/2013 12:52 PM, Joerg wrote:
>>> Don hasn't given us any specs yet but if this has to be in the
>>> sub-microsecond class then real terrestrial RF may be needed. Even old
>>> Loran could do that back in the 80's, over lots of miles:
>>>
>>> http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/ptti/1988/Vol%2020_13.pdf
>>
>> Yes, we used to report TD's to 0.1us resolution -- though I am
>> not sure if actual resolution was that or twice that.  E.g.,
>> we'd use a 10MHz TCXO as our local timebase.  And, since you were
>> measuring the differences in arrival times between events, as
>> long as your local timebase was stable (over the course of, say,
>> 10GRI) and "accurate" *that* defined your positional accuracy
>> (subject to the local geometry of your particular LORAN chain;
>> i.e., no better than ~50 ft and considerably worse in areas of
>> high GDoP)
>
> On short distances and with cheap hardware even hobbyists seem to get
> below 20ft:
>
> http://www.instructables.com/id/Distance-measurement-with-radio-waves/
>
> I think you can push this a lot more. That should put you well below
> 100nsec.

Sorry, I was recounting my experiences with LORAN -- on a planetwide
scale with 80's vintage hardware.  :>

>> I can easily get synchronization to < 1us.  How much better
>> depends on the resources I bring to bear on this.  I would
>> like to come up with a practical scheme for verifying and
>> troubleshooting synchronization problems on *deployed*
>> hardware (vs. "on the bench" where I can put things in
>> convenient places)
>
> But in your other post you said you don't want the radios in the BOM.
>
> <scratching head>

Correct.  We're conflating two different discussions:  my
time sync MEASUREMENT requirements and LORAN's capabilities.

I.e., to be more verbose:

My software  can easily achieve synchronization between nodes to
a level better than 1us -- without doing anything fancy.  Recall
you don't just have two radios talking to each other or two
wired devices -- there are also bits in the middle that contribute
to the uncertainty (e.g., network switch, length of interconnect
cable, "software", etc.)

I have modified that software to toggle an output pin at specific
"times" (i.e., I'm not just locking frequency and phase of a
timebase but also it's notion of "absolute" time).  More colloquially,
each device can toggle this output pin at *it's* notion of "12 noon".
I want to be able to *measure* (from the outside) how far off any
two devices might be.  I.e., if device #1 generates its pulse
*now*, then device #2 must generate it's pulse within << 1us of
"now".

[I.e., I'm not trying to compare two X Hz oscillators and get them
"in sync".  Rather, I am trying to compare two TIMEBASES and ensure
they are in sync -- they both agree that it is 12:00:00.000000
*now* -- by emitting a signal "often enough" that a measurement
device can provide adequate feedback to a human being regarding
any discrepancies in the devices' notion of "now"]

> Either way, geting down to the 100nsec ballpark or less should not be a
> problem if the units are in the same building. The RF link ToF can be
> measured and calculated out.

Actually, that gives me a *different* idea!

What if I sat at the "reference point" and injected a signal onto the
network cable.  A "ping" of sorts.  Prior to (or coincident with!)
this, I use a TDR to determine the (temporal!) length of the cable.

Now, at each node/device, I measure the time difference between the
arrival of this ping (from which I can determine when it *departed*
the point of origination) and the "pulse output".

Do that for each node and normalize the results?

This assumes a ping can transit from the reference to each of these
points over a single piece of "cable".  And, that the propagation
speed will be the same from one cable to another??

Thread

Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 00:45 -0700
  Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> - 2013-08-03 07:51 +0000
  Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 09:58 +0100
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals upsidedown@downunder.com - 2013-08-03 13:21 +0300
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 12:16 +0100
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 11:56 -0700
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 20:17 +0100
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 13:41 -0700
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 22:46 +0100
              Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 14:57 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 23:09 +0100
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals upsidedown@downunder.com - 2013-08-03 13:58 +0300
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 12:30 +0100
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals upsidedown@downunder.com - 2013-08-03 16:08 +0300
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 14:22 +0100
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals upsidedown@downunder.com - 2013-08-03 16:38 +0300
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 10:46 -0700
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 10:40 -0700
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 20:04 +0100
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2013-08-04 15:55 +0200
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals upsidedown@downunder.com - 2013-08-04 19:42 +0300
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2013-08-04 21:08 +0200
              Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals upsidedown@downunder.com - 2013-08-05 15:28 +0300
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2013-08-05 22:17 +0200
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2013-08-05 23:20 -0400
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 14:26 +0100
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2013-08-03 14:47 -0400
  Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-03 08:17 -0700
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 12:08 -0700
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 20:37 +0100
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 12:57 -0700
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2013-08-04 15:58 +0200
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-03 12:44 -0700
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 18:36 -0700
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-04 09:56 -0700
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-05 14:53 -0700
              Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-05 15:38 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-07 01:25 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-07 08:06 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-07 09:21 -0700
  Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals josephkk <joseph_barrett@sbcglobal.net> - 2013-08-03 15:40 +0000
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-03 10:05 -0700
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals John S <Sophi.2@invalid.org> - 2013-08-03 12:13 -0500
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-03 10:26 -0700
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals John S <Sophi.2@invalid.org> - 2013-08-03 12:51 -0500
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-03 11:54 -0700
              Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-03 20:27 +0100
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2013-08-05 03:26 -0400
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-05 10:34 +0100
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2013-08-05 23:29 -0400
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 08:53 +0100
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 12:49 -0700
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 12:34 -0700
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 12:18 -0700
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-03 12:52 -0700
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 13:21 -0700
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> - 2013-08-03 13:31 -0700
              Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-03 14:46 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-03 15:03 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> - 2013-08-03 17:25 -0700
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-03 14:50 -0700
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals "Paul E. Bennett" <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2013-08-04 11:06 +0100
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-04 12:19 -0700
  Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals John Larkin <jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> - 2013-08-03 11:47 -0700
  Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2013-08-03 18:23 -0400
  Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-05 16:53 +0100
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-05 13:19 -0700
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 00:27 +0100
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-05 20:09 -0700
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2013-08-05 22:12 -0700
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 09:12 +0100
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 01:47 -0700
              Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 10:08 +0100
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 02:25 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 02:48 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 10:49 +0100
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 03:06 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 11:57 +0100
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 10:28 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 21:52 +0100
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-07 01:34 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-07 09:46 +0100
              Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Les Cargill <lcargill99@comcast.com> - 2013-08-06 07:22 -0500
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 10:42 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Les Cargill <lcargill99@comcast.com> - 2013-08-06 23:04 -0500
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 23:50 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Les Cargill <lcargill99@comcast.com> - 2013-08-07 13:05 -0500
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-07 18:22 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-08 09:35 +0100
              Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2013-08-06 22:18 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-07 03:09 -0700
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-07 12:39 +0100
                Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-07 13:18 +0100
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 09:23 +0100
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 02:02 -0700
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals "Paul E. Bennett" <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2013-08-06 09:49 +0100
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-06 02:17 -0700
  Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Paul E Bennett <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2013-08-16 21:07 +0100
    Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-16 14:50 -0700
      Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Paul E Bennett <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2013-08-18 19:55 +0100
        Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-19 11:43 -0700
          Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Paul E Bennett <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2013-08-20 21:43 +0100
            Re: Comparing phase of physically distant signals Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-20 14:49 -0700

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