Time Synchronization in WSNs with Random Communication Delays: A Constant Gain Design

Firstly, we show that in the unified structural model of the consensus-based time synchronization (CBTS) algorithm, the offset estimate is divergent in general while the drift estimate converges in a rate of $1/k$ , where $k$ is the discrete time. Then, we propose an offset compensation approach to guaranteeing the boundedness of the offset estimate for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with random bounded communication delays. Two numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the availability of this algorithm and the better synchronization performance.

In order to tackle the problem of random communication delays in time synchronization process, this paper has mainly discussed the relationship between the global steady-state error of clock synchronization and the probability distribution of the delays of all the communication links for least square estimation based time synchronization algorithm (LSTS) in wireless sensor networks ( WSNs ). First under the general condition of communication in WSNs, it has been described that the probability distribution of bounded random communication delays has a great influence on the clock synchronization error. Then considering that all round-trip delays can be determined correctly between every pair of sensor nodes, the update rule of clock offset compensation has introduced round-trip delays so as to reduce the adjusting amplitude of the clock offset and the error of clock synchronization. Finally simulations for the improved algorithm has been given. It is shown that the error of clock skew compensation mainly depends on the variance of random communication delays rather than expectation, while the global synchronization error depends on the expectation of communication delays. The introduction of round-trip delay in LSTS algorithm can decrease both the expectation and the variance of clock synchronization error.

Study of consensus-based time synchronization in wireless sensor networks

Automatic localization is one of the major issues in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). DV-hop algorithm is a well-known localization algorithm in WSN but with limited localization accuracy. In this paper, an improved DV-hop localization algorithm in hybrid optical wireless sensor networks is proposed based on the optimization of the parameters in WSN. Various factors that affect the localization accuracy of the DV-hop algorithm in WSN are investigated, including the communication radius of the node, the number of beacon nodes and the number of the total nodes. As the DV-hop algorithm is applied into hybrid optical sensor and WSNs (O-WSN) with rectangular topology, different parameters have to be optimized accordingly. Simulation results show that the square topology outperforms the rectangle topology more than 45 % under the same network parameters using the improved DV-hop algorithm. Therefore another improved DV-hop called Sub-Square Weighted DV-hop (SSW DV-hop) is proposed for the rectangle topology. Both simulation and experiment results demonstrate that applying the SSW DV-hop algorithmin O-WSNs could significantly improve the localization accuracy.

Synchronization of tiny sensor nodes forming Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a challenging problem due to frequent topological changes, node failures and power, memory and computation constraints. These difficulties promote a self-organizing solution for the problem of time synchronization in WSNs to be quite desirable. Current self-organizing time synchronization protocols in WSNs have drawbacks: They either provide synchronicity but not a common notion of time for the nodes in the network or they demand keeping track of the time information of the neighboring nodes. The latter drawback becomes quite crucial especially on dense WSNs, which makes available self-organizing time synchronization protocols impractical. This paper provides a novel self-organizing time synchronization protocol for WSNs which does not require keeping track of the neighboring nodes. The main component of our protocol is a computationally light "adaptive-value tracking" algorithm which synchronizes the rate of each sensor node to that of all its neighboring nodes through successive feedbacks. We show by simulations that the proposed protocol achieves a tight synchronization which results in the desired property of global time notion after a finite amount of time on dense networks. Although there is no formal proof yet of the protocol's convergence, we anticipate this protocol could be used as a practical time synchronization approach.

Similar to other cyber infrastructure systems, as wireless sensor networks become larger and more complex, many classic algorithms may no longer work efficiently. This paper presents a wireless sensor network time synchronization model that was initially inspired by synchronous flashing of fireflies. Synchronous flashing of fireflies is an interesting phenomenon that has been studied for decades. A variety of models have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, among which is the pulse-coupled oscillators model that models fireflies as oscillators. The oscillators in such a model interact only through discrete pulses, similar to the flashing of fireflies. In this paper, we propose a new nonidentical linear pulse-coupled oscillators model and use the model to analyze synchronization of pulse-coupled oscillators with different frequencies. The conditions to achieve and maintain synchronization are derived, and then, the results are used to prove that the oscillators in the model can achieve synchronization eventually, except for a set of frequencies with zero Lebesgue measure. Furthermore, through simulations and implementation on a wireless sensor network testbed, we demonstrate that the proposed nonidentical linear pulse-coupled oscillators model can be used in designing lightweight scalable time synchronization protocols for distributed systems.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have extensively been worked upon due to their ability to monitor various physical phenomenon. Time synchronization is the most fundamental and most important challenge faced by WSNs. Time Synchronization in WSN can be achieved either by gaining consensus amongst all the nodes or by a reference node which broadcasts a single unit of time to the entire network. The paper describes a novel technique to achieve fully distributed cluster clock synchronization, which synchronizes all the nodes in the network to a common consensus value. The algorithm employs clustering and confidence weighted running average (CWA) method for offset and skew compensations. The efficiency of protocol is validated with simulation results presented in the paper.

The paper studies the basic characteristics and the definition of the wireless sensor networks, the time synchronization of wireless sensor network and the algorithm of time synchronization in wireless sensor networks. This paper studies the RBS algorithm and its improved algorithm. The research results have practical significance to the rapid development of network and the future network.

In wireless sensor networks, energy efficiency is an important standard for evaluating the effectiveness of the time synchronization protocols. Hence, energy should be conserved as much as possible provided that algorithm can achieve a certain accuracy. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient time synchronization algorithm in which each layer of the network can be synchronized merely by receiving broadcast messages rather than relying on two-way message exchange. Simulation results show that our improved strategy reduced the energy consumption and prolonged the lifetime of network compared with TPSN.

A fast clock synchronization algorithm for wireless sensor networks

The wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are usually deployed among widely area for environmental monitoring, data collection and other applications. In order to reduce the energy consumption and extend the lifetime of WSNs, as well as receive the data quickly, a source-based data aggregation algorithm (SBDA) for clustering wireless sensor networks is proposed. The method aggregated the data from sensor nodes and marked different transmission priority for the data. Simulation results show that, compared to existing protocols, the proposed method achieves a longer life time, and a lower packet drop ratio.

Wireless sensor networks require time synchronization, which is the coordination of events or actions to make a system operate in unison. In this work, real experiments and a theoretical analysis of the behavior of the clock sources, most used in wireless sensor networks, have been carried out. The experiments have been performed on two real platforms from two different manufacturers in real environments with sudden changes in temperature. Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor oscillators have a low accuracy, bigger than 500 ppm, and a high dependency with temperature. External crystal oscillators have good accuracy, around 20 ppm, and are stable with temperature. Temperature-compensated crystal oscillators are very accurate, around 5 ppm, and the temperature has no influence in their drift. The use of phase-locked loop circuits minimizes the impact of temperature and stabilizes oscillators. We highlight and demonstrate the importance of the early stages of design, especially the selection of the clock source, because that decision has a great impact on the performance of the time synchronization in wireless sensor networks.

In order to improve the location accuracy of unknown nodes in APIT algorithm in mobile wireless sensor networks, an improved APIT algorithm is proposed. A new test method called gravity center combination has been proposed for the InToOut and OutToIn errors in APIT. The algorithm further builds an anchor box by combining one-hop and two-hop information of nodes to limit the range and finally determine the location of unknown nodes to reduce the number of nodes that cannot be located. By improving the coverage and node availability, the positioning accuracy is eventually improved. The complexity is lowered by the lack of requirement of additional hardware, thus the improved algorithm is relatively easy to implement. The simulation results of the verification demonstrate that the updated algorithm improves the coverage ratio and the node usage efficiency compared with the other algorithm, thus makes the mobile node location more accurate.

Recently, network localization systems that are based on inter-node ranges have received significant attention. Geographic routing has been considered an application which can utilize the location information from these localization systems. In this paper, we firstly recognize that sensor network localization algorithms generate positioning data with different error patterns compared to those networks where node positions are determined directly from GNSS measurements. Secondly, by simulating practical sensor network scenarios using data from our localization algorithm, we observe that existing geographic routing algorithms in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) adopt very simplistic methods in the treatment of position error, without due consideration of error distribution. Additionally, an insight is given into localization algorithms for WSNs with inhomogeneous error environments. Our observations represent an initial step toward a detailed understanding and design of efficient geographic routing algorithms in location aware WSNs.

Wireless sensor networks area collection of a large number of unattended sensor nodes. The sensor nodes are dynamically deployed in the region. In wireless sensor networks, the unlicensed sensor nodes use their temporarily available vacant licensed channels or spectrum band in a telecommunication network. The many open challenges with issues such as adaptive in self-organisation, fault-tolerance and network scalability with cooperative spectrum sensing and sharing are identifying new challenges in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we proposed the bio-inspired adaptive routing algorithm for cognitive radio wireless sensor networks. The utilisation of the foraging approach of ANTs and BEEs for making the decision of using the available spectrum sensing and sharing of channels over multi-hops communication, provides the method to utilise idle channel and decrease the delay for communication in wireless sensor network. In this paper, we design the algorithm to solve the issue of wireless sensor network and performance of classical routing protocol LEACH and cognitive radio sensor networks (CRSN) evaluates the parameters which proof the self-organisation routing algorithm.