Synchronizing clocks in distributed networks

Very recently it has been shown that clocks in distributednetworks cannot be synchronized precisely even in idealizedsituations when asymmetric delays are present [1]. Inthis paper by determining the clock synchronization errorsin the similar settings of the impossibility result just mentioned,we are able to show that the clocks can get synchronizedwithin an acceptable range of accuracy. After analyzingthe basic case of synchronizing two clocks with asymmetrictime delays in the two-way message passing process,we show the convergence of the synchronization errors forn-clock direct ring networks, in which neighboring clocksare likely to experience severe asymmetric time delays.