Mutually connected DPLL networks: modelling, simulation and optimization.

A distribuição de sinais de tempo é um fator essencial em muitas aplicações de engenharia como, por exemplo, redes de telecomunicações, circuitos digitais integrados e sistemas de automação. Nas últimas décadas essa tarefa foi realizada, predominantemente, com redes mestre-escravo nas quais existem osciladores de referência que distribuem o sinal de tempo para osciladores escravos (PLLs) construídos para extrair a base de tempo a partir do sinal da linha. Recentemente, entretanto, o surgimento de redes de comunicação wire-less com conectividade dinâmica e o aumento dos tamanhos e das freqüências de operação dos circuitos digitais integrados indicam a necessidade de utilização de estratégias de distribuição de sinais de tempo baseadas em redes mutuamente conectadas. Nesse trabalho são estudadas redes mutuamente conectadas de PLLs para a determinação de condições para a obtenção do sincronismo de redes desse tipo em função dos parâmetros individuais dos nós e da conectividade da rede. Determinou-se também, através de simulações numéricas, a validade dos resultados analíticos obtidos. Finalmente foi estabelecido um método, baseado em algoritmos evolutivos, para a otimização dos parâmetros da rede considerando objetivos de robustez e capacidade de rejeição de ruídos na rede.Clock-distribution is an essential feature in many engineering applications as, for example, telecommunications networks and digital integrated circuits. In the last few decades this problem was predominantly addressed using master-slave strategies. In this type of strategy there are precise reference oscillators in the network called masters and their signals are distributed in the network, other oscillators called slaves (PLLs) extract the time basis from the line signals. Recently the development of wireless communication networks and the increasing size of digital integrated circuits and their rising operation frequencies indicate the need for the use of mutually-connected networks for the issue of clock-distribution. In this work mutually-connected networks of PLLs are studied in order to obtain conditions for the acquisition of a synchronous state for the network concerning the node parameters and the connection pattern of the network. Furthermore, numerical experiments were conducted to validate analytic results. Finally, a method is proposed, based on evolutionary algorithms, for the optimization of the network parameters considering the robustness and the ability to reject noise in the network as objectives

Architectures, stability and optimization for clock distribution networks

Synchronous telecommunication networks, distributed control systems and integrated circuits have its accuracy of operation dependent on the existence of a reliable time basis signal extracted from the line data stream and acquirable to each node. In this sense, the existence of a sub-network (inside the main network) dedicated to the distribution of the clock signals is crucially important. There are different solutions for the architecture of the time distribution sub-network and choosing one of them depends on cost, precision, reliability and operational security. In this work we expose: (i) the possible time distribution networks and their usual topologies and arrangements. (ii) How parameters of the network nodes can affect the reachability and stability of the synchronous state of a network. (iii) Optimizations methods for synchronous networks which can provide low cost architectures with operational precision, reliability and security. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved

Reachability of the synchronous state in a mutually connected PLL network

Second-order phase locked loops (PLLs) are devices that are able to provide synchronization between the nodes in a network even under severe quality restrictions in the signal propagation. Consequently, they are widely used in telecommunication and control. Conventional master-slave (M-S) clock-distribution systems are being, replaced by mutually connected (MC) ones due to their good potential to be used in new types of application such as wireless sensor networks, distributed computation and communication systems. Here, by using an analytical reasoning, a nonlinear algebraic system of equations is proposed to establish the existence conditions for the synchronous state in an MC PLL network. Numerical experiments confirm the analytical results and provide ideas about how the network parameters affect the reachability of the synchronous state. The phase-difference oscillation amplitudes are related to the node parameters helping to design PLL neural networks. Furthermore, estimation of the acquisition time depending on the node parameters allows the performance evaluation of time distribution systems and neural networks based on phase-locked techniques. (c) 2008 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved