A Propagation Delay Compensation Protocol for Accuracy Improvement in Clustered Network

Abstract: A wireless sensor network consist of a set of sensor devices which spread over a geographical area. A synchronized network time is essential for energy efficient scheduling, data fusion, localization in wireless sensor network applications. Data collection is one of the most important functions provided by wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we discussing theoretical limitations of data collection and data aggregation in terms of delay and capacity where sensors are randomly deployed. We propose Recursive Time Synchronization Protocol (RTSP) which accurately synchronizes all nodes in a network to a global clock using multihop architecture in an energy efficient way. Simulation results show that RTSP can achieve an average accuracy of 0.3 microseconds in a large multihop flat network. More accuracy improvement is achieved by compensating the propagation delay and adjustment of timestamps.

Keywords: time synchronization, offset, skew, propagation delay, sensor networks