STM32N6x7 - Wireless Time Synchronization

[MikeE]

Hi,
My team would like to design an array of indoor embedded boards using the STM32N6x7 processor (for AI support). We need these boards to synchronize their time / clock wirelessly.

Does STMicroelectronics have any existing products or plans for a solution that enables wireless time synchronization among multiple STM32N6x7 boards?

If no such solution is available, our backup plan is to utilize Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) over Wi-Fi 7. We understand that this may require the STM32MP2 processor for its Linux support.

Thanks!

 

[mbarg.1]

What do you mean for wirelessly? GPS? 

As STM32Nxx have Ethernet, natural way is to use it for Time synchronization - we do it within AZRTOS and we get uniform perfromances - RTC clocks in multiple boards are within 4/256 seconds, but you can take down to 2/1024 seconds if required.

STM32Nxx have no wireless interfaces, you will need to add some external devices and it is up to them to get timestamp - a single GPIO pin can be enough to get the job done on STM32 side.

Unless I misunderstood your problem ...

[MikeE]

Hi mbarg.1,

  You understood the problem correctly. As you pointed out, using an external device such as GPS (via 1PPS), you can synch multiple embedded computers (microcontroller or microprocessors) to a common clock. However, indoors, where GPS is unavailable, will not work.

  For a Texas Instrument processor we use, they have an external WiFi 5 chip that provides time synchronization features to all embedded computers on that WiFi network. The time synchronization was in the microseconds. This feature was not advertised but explained in a hard-to-find Application Note.
 
  I did a deep dive into all the products offered in STMicro's "Wireless connectivity" product line that appear to work with STM32N6x7 and did not find any time synchronization features (at the microsecond level). I was curious if STMicro has this feature and maybe it is a hidden feature like TI with its application note.