COMMUNICATING SCHEDULE AND NETWORK INFORMATION IN A POWERLINE NETWORK

摘要

There is provided a powerline network (202,220) that includes a number of stations (A,B,C,D) including a central coordinator (Cco1) for coordinating transmissions of each of the stations (A,B,C,D). The central coordinator (Cco1) includes a system clock and a network timer and is configurable to transmit a number of network timer values. Each of the network timer values can be transmitted by the central coordinator (Cco1) in one of a number of beacons. Each of the other stations (A,B,C,D) is configurable to utilize the network timer values and a corresponding number of local timer values to estimate a frequency error between the system clock and a local clock and an offset between the network timer and a local timer. Each of the other stations (A,B,C,D) is further configurable to utilize the frequency error and the offset to synchronize the local timer to the network timer.