Article: An efficient synchronisation protocol for wireless sensor network Journal: International Journal of Sensor Networks (IJSNET) 2007 Vol.2 No.1/2 pp.17 - 24 Abstract: Time synchronisation is a critical topic in wireless sensor networks for its wide applications, such as data fusion, TDMA scheduling and cooperated sleeping, etc. In this paper, we present an Accurate Time Synchronisation (ATS) protocol based on linear least square for sensor networks. Unlike the previous protocols, all nodes are not synchronised to some reference nodes or sink node, but to a virtual clock. Moreover, each pair of the nodes is synchronised to each other. The main advantages of ATS are simplicity and accuracy. Especially, the variance of the synchronised drift error is less than Dsδ/2β², where Ds, δ and β are the depth of the network, the maximal variance of the link delay and the sampling interval, respectively. The experiments show that ATS protocol has achieved at least 37% performance enhancement than the previous pairwise algorithm. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: An efficient synchronisation protocol for wireless sensor network

Authors: Liusheng Huang, Hongli Xu, Yingyu Wan, Junmin Wu, Hong Li

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Software in Computing and Communication, Hefei 230027, PR China. ' Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Software in Computing and Communication, Hefei 230027, PR China. ' Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Software in Computing and Communication, Hefei 230027, PR China. ' Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Software in Computing and Communication, Hefei 230027, PR China. ' Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Software in Computing and Communication, Hefei 230027, PR China

Abstract: Time synchronisation is a critical topic in wireless sensor networks for its wide applications, such as data fusion, TDMA scheduling and cooperated sleeping, etc. In this paper, we present an Accurate Time Synchronisation (ATS) protocol based on linear least square for sensor networks. Unlike the previous protocols, all nodes are not synchronised to some reference nodes or sink node, but to a virtual clock. Moreover, each pair of the nodes is synchronised to each other. The main advantages of ATS are simplicity and accuracy. Especially, the variance of the synchronised drift error is less than D_sδ/2β², where D_s, δ and β are the depth of the network, the maximal variance of the link delay and the sampling interval, respectively. The experiments show that ATS protocol has achieved at least 37% performance enhancement than the previous pairwise algorithm.

Keywords: time synchronisation; wireless sensor networks; drift; offset; wireless networks; WSNs; linear least squares.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2007.012978

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2007 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.17 - 24

Published online: 02 Apr 2007 *

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Title: An efficient synchronisation protocol for wireless sensor network

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