Model Based Design of a Slot Based Time Synchronization Protocol for HF TDMA Networks

In highly loaded communication scenarios where turnaround times are high, as in high frequency (HF) environments, time division multiple access (TDMA) media access control (MAC) approach is preferred. In this approach, time synchronization of all network participants is of crucial importance. This study presents model based design of a time synchronization protocol and evaluate its performance in challenging HF communication conditions in MATLAB Simulink environment. The simulation results show that under moderate conditions with random packet losses in "good" states and burst packet losses in "bad" states, the nodes in the network successfully synchronize, even with the worst-case initial conditions of time offsets.