Consensus time synchronization with clustering in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have extensively been worked upon due to their ability to monitor various physical phenomenon. Time synchronization is the most fundamental and most important challenge faced by WSNs. Time Synchronization in WSN can be achieved either by gaining consensus amongst all the nodes or by a reference node which broadcasts a single unit of time to the entire network. The paper describes a novel technique to achieve fully distributed cluster clock synchronization, which synchronizes all the nodes in the network to a common consensus value. The algorithm employs clustering and confidence weighted running average (CWA) method for offset and skew compensations. The efficiency of protocol is validated with simulation results presented in the paper.