J4 ›› 2013, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (1): 93-99+147.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1001-2400.2013.01.017

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Simple distributed time synchronization scheme for  wireless sensor networks

SHI Chao1;QIU Hongbing1,2;CHEN Donghua3;LI Xiaoyan1   

  1. (1. School of Telecommunication Engineering, Xidian Univ., Xi'an  710071, China;
    2. Info. and Communication College, Guilin Univ. of Electronic Tech., Guilin  541004, China;
    3. Info. Science & Eng. College, Huaqiao Univ., Xiamen  361021, China)
  • Received:2012-05-14 Online:2013-02-20 Published:2013-03-28
  • Contact: SHI Chao E-mail:shichao@mail.xidian.edu.cn

Abstract:

The wireless sensor network(WSN) is featured by no infrastructure, distribution, resource constraints and limited processing and memory. Accordingly, in designing the time synchronization protocols for wireless sensor networks, intensive computation and complex route selecting are undesirable. For accelerating the time synchronization and lowering energy consumption in the WSN, this paper presents a simple time synchronization scheme for wireless sensor networks. In this scheme, each note broadcasts its clock information and as a result its neighbors will receive the clock information. After averaging the received clock information, the neighbor notes take the averaged clock information as its next clock tick. This process is carried out repeatedly until all the net notes meet the same clock tick, which means the whole network achieves distributed synchronization. As each note in the network only receives its neighbor's information, so this scheme does no need specific routing and too complex processing and it has a fast convergence rate and low energy consumption. The proof for the convergence of the proposed synchronization algorithm is carried out using the random matrix theory. The analysis of the convergence rate and the energy consumption and synchronization error are also carried out. The results of theoretical analysis are verified by computer simulation.

Key words: synchronization, time synchronization, wireless sensor networks

CLC Number: 

  • TN929.5