Gradient clock synchronization in wireless sensor networks

Accurately synchronized clocks are crucial for many applications in sensor networks. Existing time synchronization algorithms provide on average good synchronization between arbitrary nodes, however, as we show in this paper, close-by nodes in a network may be synchronized poorly. We propose the Gra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:2009 International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks pp. 37 - 48
Main Authors: Sommer, Philipp, Wattenhofer, Roger
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC, USA IEEE Computer Society 13.04.2009
IEEE
Series:ACM Conferences
Subjects:
Acoustic sensors
Clocks
Computer networks
Hardware
Hardware > Communication hardware, interfaces and storage
Laboratories
Network topology
Networks
Networks > Network services > Network management
Networks > Network types > Mobile networks
Networks > Network types > Wireless access networks
Protocols
Software and its engineering > Software organization and properties > Contextual software domains > Operating systems > Process management > Process synchronization
Software and its engineering > Software organization and properties > Software system structures > Distributed systems organizing principles
Synchronization
Testing
Wireless sensor networks
ISBN:1424451086, 9781424451081
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Accurately synchronized clocks are crucial for many applications in sensor networks. Existing time synchronization algorithms provide on average good synchronization between arbitrary nodes, however, as we show in this paper, close-by nodes in a network may be synchronized poorly. We propose the Gradient Time Synchronization Protocol (GTSP) which is designed to provide accurately synchronized clocks between neighbors. GTSP works in a completely decentralized fashion: Every node periodically broadcasts its time information. Synchronization messages received from direct neighbors are used to calibrate the logical clock. The algorithm requires neither a tree topology nor a reference node, which makes it robust against link and node failures. The protocol is implemented on the Mica2 platform using TinyOS. We present an evaluation of GTSP on a 20-node testbed setup and simulations on larger network topologies.
ISBN:1424451086
9781424451081
DOI:10.5555/1602165.1602171