Stability analysis of distributed clock synchronization in the time-triggered architecture

Recourse to well-established analysis and design methods known from control and observer theory is a rising trend in embedded computing. This interdisciplinary approach brings about interesting new results and ideas allowing tighter system specifications and increased self-adaptability. We use observer theory for explaining stability features of the clock-synchronization algorithm in a time-triggered system when strained parameter settings are applied. Proportional-and-integral (PI) control is applied to the problem of synchronization, improving significantly the precision of the distributed local clocks in the cluster.