A novel time stamping technique for distributed data acquisition systems.

In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of a synchronizing technique for data acquisition systems, which can effectively use the normal, standard local area network cables to provide a time stamp, with a range up to 32 days, resolution of 10 ns, and synchronization within ± 5 ns. This system may be used to synchronize data being collected by independent heterogeneous data acquisition modules, that acquire events independently. Such distributed systems are generally designed with a tree-like structure or independent self-triggered acquisition boxes. These leaf edges are connected through branches to the root node, via non-bus based inter-connecting links. The present system has been tested with a set of self-triggered digital signal processing based data acquisition engines, having a 100 MHz analog to digital converter front end.