RL and AHP-Based Multi-Timescale Multi-Clock Source Time Synchronization for Distribution Power Internet of Things

Time synchronization (TS) is crucial for ensuring the secure and reliable functioning of the distribution power Internet of Things (IoT). Multi-clock source time synchronization (MTS) has significant advantages of high reliability and accuracy but still faces challenges such as optimization of the multi-clock source selection and the clock source weight calculation at different timescales, and the coupling of synchronization latency jitter and pulse phase difference. In this paper, the multi-timescale MTS model is conducted, and the reinforcement learning (RL) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based multi-timescale MTS algorithm is designed to improve the weighted summation of synchronization latency jitter standard deviation and average pulse phase difference. Specifically, the multi-clock source selection is optimized based on Softmax in the large timescale, and the clock source weight calculation is optimized based on lower confidence bound-assisted AHP in the small timescale. Simulation shows that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce time synchronization delay standard deviation and average pulse phase difference.