Towards a theory for securing time synchronization in wireless sensor networks

Time synchronization in highly distributed wireless systems like sensor and ad hoc networks is extremely important in order to maintain a consistent notion of time throughout the network and to support the various timing-based applications. But, cheating behavior by the participating nodes in the network can severely jeopardize the accuracy of the associated time synchronization process. Despite recent advances in this direction, a key fundamental question still remains unanswered: Is it theoretically feasible to secure distributed time synchronization protocols, given complete (or global) time and time difference information in the network? In this paper, we attempt to answer this question with the help of sound mathematical modeling and analysis. We first formulate the problem of distributed time synchronization as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) in a graphbased model of the network. Then, we prove that efficiently eliminating cheating behavior in distributed time synchron...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: WISEC
• Authors: Murtuza Jadliwala, Qi Duan, Shambhu J. Upadhyaya, Jinhui Xu
• Keywords: Distributed Time Synchronization, Time Synchronization, Time Synchronization Protocols, Wireless Network, WISEC 2009