A Mutual Network Synchronization Method for Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

Mutual network synchronization is a distributed method in which geographically separated clocks align their times to one another without the need of reference or master clocks. Mutual network synchronization is attractive for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, because there is no overhead associated with the discovery, management, and tracking of specific nodes with reference clocks. Existing mutual network synchronization methods, however, make use of physical and medium access control layers that are proprietary and not widely available. This paper presents Clock Sampling Mutual Network Synchronization (CS-MNS). CS-MNS is able to achieve microsecond networkwide synchronization accuracy for single-hop or multiple-hop network topologies in mobile or static wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Different from existing mutual network synchronization approaches, the timing information is exchanged explicitly by using periodic time stamp packets. These packets can be, for instance, the sa...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TMC
• Authors: Carlos H. Rentel, Thomas Kunz
• Keywords: Clock, Mutual Network Synchronization, Network Synchronization Method, TMC 2008