Synchronization method for distributed systems with functional safety

Time synchronization is a key requirement in several application domains based on real-time distributed systems. Therefore, it is a research area of interest, especially in lines such as the transfer of time and frequency, the design of clocks and oscillators, and the use of synchronization in communication networks. This work focuses on the transfer of time between elements of a distributed system for the synchronization of their clocks and the software they execute. Currently, there are different protocols to synchronize autonomous nodes, but they have some drawbacks that make them unsuitable for certain types of distributed systems. This paper presents a method for synchronizing the execution of distributed software on a local area network. Additionally, the functional safety analysis of the method is developed and the measures it must implement to achieve a SIL2 are proposed. The method has been implemented and validated by executing it in a realistic physical distributed system, obtaining promising results. © 2021 Universitat Politecnica de Valencia. All rights reserved.