A Reference Based, Tree Structured Time Synchronization Approach and its Analysis in WSN

TL;DR

This paper introduces a lightweight, tree-structured, reference-based time synchronization method for wireless sensor networks that ensures accurate global time with minimal message overhead.

Contribution

It proposes a novel bidirectional, tree-structured synchronization approach with an evaluation phase, reducing message complexity and improving efficiency in WSNs.

Findings

Constant broadcasting messages in one domain reduce overhead

Approach achieves accurate synchronization with low communication cost

Network analysis confirms lightweight and scalable design

Abstract

Time synchronization for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been studied in recent years as a fundamental and significant research issue. Many applications based on these WSNs assume local clocks at each sensor node that need to be synchronized to a common notion of time. Time synchronization in a WSN is critical for accurate time stamping of events and fine-tuned coordination among the sensor nodes to reduce power consumption. This paper proposes a bidirectional, reference based, tree structured time synchronization service for WSNs along with network evaluation phase. This offers a push mechanism for (i) accurate and (ii) low overhead for global time synchronization. Analysis study of proposed approach shows that it is lightweight as the number of required broadcasting messages is constant in one broadcasting domain.