US 12,362,899 B2
Time synchronization in industrial system
William Afshari, Saint-Paul de Vence (FR)
Assigned to Schneider Electric Industries SAS, Rueil Malmaison (FR)
Filed by Schneider Electric Industries SAS, Rueil Malmaison (FR)
Filed on Sep. 1, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/900,914.
Claims priority of application No. 21306239 (EP), filed on Sep. 10, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0079341 A1, Mar. 16, 2023
Int. Cl. H04L 7/10 (2006.01); G06F 13/40 (2006.01); H04J 3/06 (2006.01); H04L 7/00 (2006.01)
CPC H04L 7/0008 (2013.01) [G06F 13/405 (2013.01); H04J 3/0661 (2013.01); H04J 3/0697 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An industrial system for controlling backplane communication, comprising:
a cluster manager comprising a primary switch linked to a primary control module, the primary switch implementing a primary clock,
at least one Input/Output, I/O, module comprising a secondary switch linked to a secondary control module, the secondary switch implementing a secondary clock,
a first unidirectional communication line and a second unidirectional communication line linking the cluster manager to the at least one I/O module through passive base plates,
wherein the cluster manager comprises a first transmission port and a first reception port on the first unidirectional communication line and the at least one I/O module comprises a first reception port on the first unidirectional communication line, and wherein the cluster manager further comprises a second transmission port on the second unidirectional communication line and the at least one I/O module further comprises a second reception port on the second unidirectional communication line,
wherein the primary control module is configured to send a pulse on the first unidirectional communication line to the secondary control module and the primary control module,
wherein the pulse is received simultaneously by the cluster manager and the at least one I/O module, and upon reception of the pulse, the primary control module is configured to create a primary timestamp from the primary clock of the primary switch and the secondary control module is configured to create a secondary timestamp from the secondary clock of the secondary switch,
wherein the primary control module is configured to send a message on the second unidirectional communication line to the secondary control module, the message comprising the primary timestamp,
wherein, upon reception of the message, the secondary control module is configured to synchronize the secondary clock with the primary clock based on the received primary timestamp and secondary timestamp.