The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 11, 2009
Filed:
May. 12, 2005
Slawomir K. Ilnicki, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Jefferson B. Burch, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Martin Curran-gray, Dunfermline, GB;
Slawomir K. Ilnicki, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Jefferson B. Burch, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Martin Curran-Gray, Dunfermline, GB;
Agilent Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
By equipping receiving devices in a network with synchronizable clocks it is possible to periodically send an 'impulse' signal that is received by all of the clocks at the same (or relatively the same) instant of time. The accuracy of the impulse clock need not be high, only that its signal reach all the clocks approximately at the same time. In one embodiment, a transmitting device, upon receipt of the synchronizing impulse signal, sends a packet of data bearing the sending device's epoch time-stamp to a receiving device. The data packet makes its way through the network element to the receiving device and the time-stamp is used by the receiving device to calculate the difference between the epoch time of the receiver and the epoch time of the sender. Effectively, this procedure removes the unknown network element transit times from the equation and allows the devices to operate in a synchronized manner.