Synchronization of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers

The synchronization of the trigger and data acquisition systems for the Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at CERN is described. The CSC trigger system is designed to trigger CMS on muons with high efficiency (~99% per chamber) and is able to accurately identify its 25ns proton bunch crossing. To date, asynchronous cosmic ray data have been used to define the protocol and to refine timing algorithms, allowing synchronization to be realized within and between chambers to within ±10 ns. Final synchronization of the CSCs requires timing parameters to be accurate to 2 ns. This goal will be readily achieved from the cosmic ray baseline using data taken with the synchronous beam structure of the Large Hadron Collider.