Simultaneous Event Execution in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a synchronization algorithm enabling nodes in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks to execute tasks simultaneously without relying on a shared global clock, reducing communication overhead and accommodating hardware and communication heterogeneity.

Contribution

The proposed algorithm allows spontaneous, task-specific synchronization in heterogeneous networks without a global time basis, differing from traditional time synchronization methods.

Findings

Algorithm works across diverse hardware with varying clock accuracy.

Effective in both unreliable wireless and reliable wired connections.

Requires less communication than existing synchronization algorithms.

Abstract

We present a synchronization algorithm to let nodes in a sensor network simultaneously execute a task at a given point in time. In contrast to other time synchronization algorithms we do not provide a global time basis that is shared on all nodes. Instead, any node in the network can spontaneously initiate a process that allows the simultaneous execution of arbitrary tasks. We show that our approach is beneficial in scenarios where a global time is not needed, as it requires little communication compared with other time synchronization algorithms. We also show that our algorithm works in heterogeneous systems where the hardware provides highly varying clock accuracy. Moreover, heterogeneity does not only affect the hardware, but also the communication channels. We deal with different connection types---from highly unreliable and fluctuating wireless channels to reliable and fast wired connections.