How to synchronize Digital Twins? A Communication Performance Analysis

Cakir, Lal Verda; Al-Shareeda, Sarah; Oktug, Sema F.; Özdem, Mehmet; Broadbent, Matthew; Canberk, Berk

Abstract

Synchronization is fundamental for mirroring real-world entities in real-time and supporting effective operations of Digital Twins (DTs). Such synchronization is enabled by the communication between the physical and virtual realms, and it is mostly assumed to occur in real-time. However, this is not the case, as real-life scenarios witness performance degradation that may lead to synchronization problems. Hence, as such a problem has yet to be thoroughly analyzed in the literature, this work attempts to uncover potential challenges by emulating and analyzing the DT traffic flows in networks of different scales, for different communication protocols, and with various flow configurations. We propose a Twin Alignment Ratio metric to evaluate the synchronization performance to achieve this goal. Consequently, the findings reveal the interplay of network infrastructure, protocol selection, and twinning rate on synchronization and performance.

Citation

Cakir, L. V., Al-Shareeda, S., Oktug, S. F., Özdem, M., Broadbent, M., & Canberk, B. (2023, November). How to synchronize Digital Twins? A Communication Performance Analysis. Presented at 2023 IEEE 28th International Workshop on Computer Aided Modeling and Design of Communication Links and Networks (CAMAD), Edinburgh, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 2023 IEEE 28th International Workshop on Computer Aided Modeling and Design of Communication Links and Networks (CAMAD)
• Start Date: Nov 6, 2023
• End Date: Nov 8, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Oct 7, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 27, 2024
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Oct 10, 2024
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 123-127
• Series ISSN: 2378-4873
• Book Title: 2023 IEEE 28th International Workshop on Computer Aided Modeling and Design of Communication Links and Networks (CAMAD)
• ISBN: 9798350303506
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/camad59638.2023.10478422
• Keywords: Digital Twins, Synchronization, Twinning Rate, Communication, Performance Analysis, Simulations