Apple Inc.
Multi-Protocol Synchronization

Abstract:

Techniques are disclosed relating to maintaining a first reference clock for a first local area network (LAN). The first reference clock is usable by a first set of computing devices coupled to the first LAN to participate in a shared experience with a second set of computing devices coupled to a second LAN. A computing system synchronizes, via a first time synchronization protocol, the first reference clock with a global reference clock accessible to the computing system over a wide area network (WAN). The computing system provides, via a second time synchronization protocol, a time value of the first reference clock to one of the first set of computing devices to coordinate an event in the shared experience with one of the second set of computing devices, where the second time synchronization protocol has a precision that is greater than a precision of the first time synchronization protocol.