PLL Based Time Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract—Time synchronization is a key component in numerous wireless sensor network applications. Most of the current software based time synchronization approaches suffer from communication overhead and lack of scalability. In this paper, we propose a hardware based approach based on voltage controlled crystal oscillator and phase locked loop techniques to achieve and maintain sub microsecond level time synchronization. Our approach does not require any exchange of synchronization messages with neighboring nodes. Performance evaluations in Matlab demonstrate sub microsecond accuracy and robustness to infrequent loss of WWVB signal. The principle advantages of our solution is scalability, accuracy, and low communication overhead.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: RTCSA
• Authors: Gang Zhou, Sachin Shetty, George Simms, Min Song
• Keywords: Communication Overhead, Real-Time Computing, RTCSA 2009, Synchronization Approaches Suffer, Time Synchronization