  This paper presents an innovative hybrid systems approach to the
sender-receiver synchronization of timers. Via the hybrid systems framework, we
unite the traditional sender-receiver algorithm for clock synchronization with
an online, adaptive strategy to achieve synchronization of the clock rates to
exponentially synchronize a pair of clocks connected over a network. Following
the conventions of the algorithm, clock measurements of the nodes are given at
periodic time instants, and each node uses these measurements to achieve
synchronization. For this purpose, we introduce a hybrid system model of a
network with continuous and impulsive dynamics that captures the
sender-receiver algorithm as a state-feedback controller to synchronize the
network clocks. Moreover, we provide sufficient design conditions that ensure
attractivity of the synchronization set.
