Data timestamp management

US7937232B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• PIVOTAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION · US

Inventors

• Paxton Ming Kai Chow · Walnut Creek, US
• Vera Alexandrova Snowball · Newark, US
• Barton Lane · Austin, US
• Sophia Leonidovna Shtilman · Sunnyvale, US
• Chalee Asavathiratham · New York, US
• Abhijit Majumdar · San Antonio, US
• Sherk Chung · San Bruno, US
• Yi Wang · Foster City, US
• Paul Tran · Milpitas, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 25, 2007
• Grant date: May 3, 2011
• Expiry date: Jun 25, 2027

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G05B21/02
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to managing timestamps associated with received data. According to one embodiment, data is collected from a device that generates data at a specified rate, but which lacks a built-in clock. An accurate timestamp is assigned to the data by first taking an absolute timestamp from a reference clock, and then adding a calculated amount of time to each subsequent data point based on an estimate of the sampling frequency of the device. As the generated timestamp drifts from the actual reference clock time, the sampling frequency is re-estimated based on the amount of detected drift.