A software trigger based synchronization for multipurpose distributed acquisition systems

Synchronization is one of the key aspects and a requirement for modern day technologies. It's a requirement for almost every sector including power, health, retail, navigation, banking. Synchronization is also important when using distributed acquisition systems. Synchronous acquisition is strictly needed in applications like Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) and wide area sensor networks. Since the data from the sensors are all collectively processed by a central unit, it is important that the data from all sensors is synchronized. Therefore, the concept of synchronized sampling when using distributed acquisition systems forms an interesting research area. There have been numerous research papers discussing different methods to do this. But, in most of them, the available technology is specific to a particular application. This paper shows an initial attempt to present a solution with a PTP driven software trigger that could potentially be used for multiple applications.