On enery-efficient time synchronization based on source clock frequency recovery in wireless sensor networks

In this paper we study energy-efficient time synchronization schemes with focus on asymmetric wireless sensor networks, where a head node, which is connected to both wired & wireless networks, is equipped with a powerful processor and supplied power from outlet, and sensor nodes, which are connected only through wireless channels, are limited in processing and battery-powered. It is this asymmetry that we focus our study on; unlike existing schemes saving the power of all sensor nodes in the network (including the head node), we concentrate on battery-powered sensor nodes in minimizing energy consumption for synchronization. Specifically, we discuss a time synchronization scheme based on source clock frequency recovery, where we minimize the number of message transmissions from sensor nodes to the head node, and its extension to network-wide, multi-hop synchronization through gateway nodes.

[1]  Kyeong Soo Kim,et al.  Asynchronous Source Clock Frequency Recovery through Aperiodic Packet Streams , 2013, IEEE Communications Letters.

[2]  Saurabh Ganeriwal,et al.  Timing-sync protocol for sensor networks , 2003, SenSys '03.

[3]  Yik-Chung Wu,et al.  Clock Synchronization of Wireless Sensor Networks , 2011, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.

[4]  John Anderson,et al.  Wireless sensor networks for habitat monitoring , 2002, WSNA '02.

[5]  David Macii,et al.  Power consumption reduction in Wireless Sensor Networks through optimal synchronization , 2009, 2009 IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference.

[6]  Tarek R. Sheltami,et al.  RTSP: An Accurate and Energy-Efficient Protocol for Clock Synchronization in WSNs , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[7]  Kyeong Soo Kim.  Comments on “IEEE 1588 Clock Synchronization Using Dual Slave Clocks in a Slave” , 2014, IEEE Communications Letters.