In an example embodiment, a communication system provides a clock extension peripheral interface (CXPI) communication bus that is coupled to a master node and a plurality of slave nodes. The master node is configured to transmit a reference clock signal on the CXPI communication bus. Each slave node of the plurality of slave nodes is configured to receive the reference clock signal from the CXPI communication bus and to transmit and receive data to and from the CXPI communication bus based on the reference clock signal.