Fault tolerant time synchronization using offsets table robust broadcasting protocol for vehicular ad hoc networks

Abstract The requirement of time synchronization emerged in distributed systems remains one of the most significant issues that should be addressed to the extent of that systems evolve. As clock synchronization is important for any type of network, Vehicular Ad hoc networks (VANETs) are being considered for their basic communication platforms, but also for providing the ability to detect movement, location, proximity, and other network capabilities. The intrinsic characteristics of VANETs like: the high speed of nodes and the lack of permanent network connectivity generated by an instable environment, which make communication difficult or temporarily impossible, have created new challenges. These challenges make solutions that have been already proposed for classical networks no longer appropriate. Therefore, to overcome this deficiency, new and adaptive clock synchronization mechanisms should be devised and implemented, dealing so with communication and scalability issues. In this paper, we propose “Offsets Table Robust Broadcasting” (OTRB) algorithm. In this algorithm, instead to each node communicates with its vicinity, a set of nodes is selected to spread the time information over the entire network. The proposed time synchronization protocol is well-adapted to random network topology changes, high nodal velocity while offering good precision and robustness against nodal failure and packet loss. The analytical study and protocol simulation for evaluating the system performance, carried out by a combination of VanetMobiSim and NS2 simulators, have yielded convincing results, outperforming those exhibited by the basic referred protocols.