A New Approach for Time Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks: Pairwise Broadcast Synchronization

doi:10.1109/TWC.2008.070343

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A New Approach for Time Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks: Pairwise Broadcast Synchronization

Journal Article•DOI•

A New Approach for Time Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks: Pairwise Broadcast Synchronization

Kyoung-Lae Noh¹, Erchin Serpedin¹, Khalid A. Qaraqe¹•Institutions (1)

Texas A&M University¹

01 Sep 2008-IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (IEEE)-Vol. 7, Iss: 9, pp 3318-3322

TL;DR: An energy-efficient clock synchronization scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) based on a novel time synchronization approach which significantly reduces the overall network-wide energy consumption without incurring any loss of synchronization accuracy compared to other well-known schemes.

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Abstract: This letter proposes an energy-efficient clock synchronization scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) based on a novel time synchronization approach. Within the proposed synchronization approach, a subset of sensor nodes are synchronized by overhearing the timing message exchanges of a pair of sensor nodes. Therefore, a group of sensor nodes can be synchronized without sending any extra messages. This paper brings two main contributions: 1. Development of a novel synchronization approach which can be partially or fully applied for implementation of new synchronization protocols and for improving the performance of existing time synchronization protocols. 2. Design of a time synchronization scheme which significantly reduces the overall network-wide energy consumption without incurring any loss of synchronization accuracy compared to other well-known schemes.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Clock Synchronization of Wireless Sensor Networks

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Yik-Chung Wu¹, Qasim M. Chaudhari¹, Erchin Serpedin¹•Institutions (1)

Texas A&M University¹

01 Jan 2011-IEEE Signal Processing Magazine

TL;DR: This article illustrates that many of the proposed clock synchronization protocols can be interpreted and their performance assessed using common statistical signal processing methods, and shows that advanced signal processing techniques enable the derivation of optimal clock synchronization algorithms under challenging scenarios.

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Abstract: Clock synchronization is a critical component in the operation of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), as it provides a common time frame to different nodes. It supports functions such as fusing voice and video data from different sensor nodes, time-based channel sharing, and coordinated sleep wake-up node scheduling mechanisms. Early studies on clock synchronization for WSNs mainly focused on protocol design. However, the clock synchronization problem is inherently related to parameter estimation, and, recently, studies on clock synchronization began to emerge by adopting a statistical signal processing framework. In this article, a survey on the latest advances in the field of clock synchronization of WSNs is provided by following a signal processing viewpoint. This article illustrates that many of the proposed clock synchronization protocols can be interpreted and their performance assessed using common statistical signal processing methods. It is also shown that advanced signal processing techniques enable the derivation of optimal clock synchronization algorithms under challenging scenarios.

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571 citations

Cites background from "A New Approach for Time Synchroniza..."

...In addition to building a tree and spatial smoothing, more recently, a new approach called pairwise broadcast synchronization (PBS) was introduced in [45]....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Clock Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks: An Overview

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Ill-Keun Rhee¹, Jaehan Lee, Jang-Sub Kim, Erchin Serpedin, Yik-Chung Wu - Show less +1 more•Institutions (1)

Hannam University¹

06 Jan 2009-Sensors

TL;DR: This paper reviews the existing clock synchronization protocols for WSNs and the methods of estimating clock offset and clock skew in the most representative clock synchronization Protocol for W SNs.

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Abstract: The development of tiny, low-cost, low-power and multifunctional sensor nodes equipped with sensing, data processing, and communicating components, have been made possible by the recent advances in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) assume a collection of such tiny sensing devices connected wirelessly and which are used to observe and monitor a variety of phenomena in the real physical world. Many applications based on these WSNs assume local clocks at each sensor node that need to be synchronized to a common notion of time. This paper reviews the existing clock synchronization protocols for WSNs and the methods of estimating clock offset and clock skew in the most representative clock synchronization protocols for WSNs.

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212 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Wireless sensor network for structural health monitoring: A contemporary review of technologies, challenges, and future direction:

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Mohammed Abdulkarem¹, Khairulmizam Samsudin¹, Fakhrul Zaman Rokhani¹, Mohd Fadlee A. Rasid¹•Institutions (1)

Universiti Putra Malaysia¹

01 May 2020-Structural Health Monitoring-an International Journal

TL;DR: A contemporary review of collective experience the researchers have gained from the application of wireless sensor networks for structural health monitoring is presented to assist the researchers in understanding the obstacles and the suitability of implementing wireless technology forStructural health monitoring applications.

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Abstract: The importance of wireless sensor networks in structural health monitoring is unceasingly growing, because of the increasing demand for both safety and security in the cities. The speedy growth of ...

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175 citations

Cites background or methods from "A New Approach for Time Synchroniza..."

...Moreover, software-based time synchronization approach can be broadly categorized into the following three classes in terms of message direction: Sender–receiver, Receiver–receiver, and Receiveronly approach.(142,145,146) The classification for TSE correction techniques deduced from Noel et al....
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...On the contrary, time synchronization protocols were extensively scrutinized to be a solution for the issue of time synchronization in WSNs. Generally, synchronization approach can be broadly categorized into three classes in terms of message direction; Sender– receiver, Receiver–receiver, and Receiver-only.145,146 In the sender–receiver protocol, a single node synchronizes its clock to the reference node clock through bidirectional communication (e.g. timing-sync protocol for sensor networks (TPSNs)151 and flood time synchronization protocol (FTSP)152)....
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...Generally, synchronization approach can be broadly categorized into three classes in terms of message direction; Sender– receiver, Receiver–receiver, and Receiver-only.(145,146) In the sender–receiver protocol, a single node synchronizes its clock to the reference node clock through bidirectional communication (e....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Visibility graph similarity: A new measure of generalized synchronization in coupled dynamic systems

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Mehran Ahmadlou¹, Hojjat Adeli²•Institutions (2)

Amirkabir University of Technology¹, Ohio State University²

15 Feb 2012-Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena

TL;DR: In this paper a new method, called Visibility Graph Similarity (VGS), is presented as a method of measuring Generalized Synchronization, and it is shown that VGS provides a more accurate measure of the overall synchronization compared with SL.

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139 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

On Clock Synchronization Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks Under Unknown Delay

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Mei Leng¹, Yik-Chung Wu¹•Institutions (1)

University of Hong Kong¹

01 Jan 2010-IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

TL;DR: Three clock-synchronization algorithms for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) under unknown delay are derived, including the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE), a generalization of the estimator of Noh, and a novel low-complexity estimator.

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Abstract: In this paper, three clock-synchronization algorithms for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) under unknown delay are derived. They include the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE), a generalization of the estimator of Noh , and a novel low-complexity estimator. Their corresponding performance bounds are derived and compared, and complexities are also analyzed. It is found that the MLE achieves the best performance with the price of high complexity. For the generalized version of the estimator of Noh , although it has low complexity, its performance is degraded with respect to the MLE. On the other hand, the newly proposed estimator achieves the same performance as the MLE, and the complexity is at the same level as that of the generalized version of the estimator of Noh et al.

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137 citations

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References

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Journal Article•DOI•

Wireless sensor networks: a survey

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Ian F. Akyildiz¹, Weilian Su¹, Y. Sankarasubramaniam¹, Erdal Cayirci¹•Institutions (1)

Georgia Institute of Technology¹

15 Mar 2002-Computer Networks

TL;DR: The concept of sensor networks which has been made viable by the convergence of micro-electro-mechanical systems technology, wireless communications and digital electronics is described.

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17,936 citations

"A New Approach for Time Synchroniza..." refers background in this paper

...where x = [x[1] x[2] · · · x[N ]] , w = [w[1] w[2] · · · w[N ]] , θ = [θ offset θ skew ] , and...
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...IN recent years, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have received a huge attention due to their promising applications in a variety of areas [1]....
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...These delay components have been carefully investigated in the literature [1], [3], [5] and [6]....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Fundamentals of statistical signal processing: estimation theory

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Steven Kay¹•Institutions (1)

University of Rhode Island¹

01 Mar 1993-Technometrics

TL;DR: The Fundamentals of Statistical Signal Processing: Estimation Theory as mentioned in this paper is a seminal work in the field of statistical signal processing, and it has been used extensively in many applications.

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Abstract: (1995). Fundamentals of Statistical Signal Processing: Estimation Theory. Technometrics: Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 465-466.

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14,342 citations

Book•

Fundamentals Of Statistical Signal Processing

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Steven Kay

16 Mar 2001

7,058 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Fine-grained network time synchronization using reference broadcasts

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Jeremy Elson¹, Lewis Girod¹, Deborah Estrin¹•Institutions (1)

University of California, Los Angeles¹

09 Dec 2002

TL;DR: Reference Broadcast Synchronization (RBS) as discussed by the authors is a scheme in which nodes send reference beacons to their neighbors using physical-layer broadcasts, and receivers use their arrival time as a point of reference for comparing their clocks.

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Abstract: Recent advances in miniaturization and low-cost, low-power design have led to active research in large-scale networks of small, wireless, low-power sensors and actuators. Time synchronization is critical in sensor networks for diverse purposes including sensor data fusion, coordinated actuation, and power-efficient duty cycling. Though the clock accuracy and precision requirements are often stricter than in traditional distributed systems, strict energy constraints limit the resources available to meet these goals.We present Reference-Broadcast Synchronization, a scheme in which nodes send reference beacons to their neighbors using physical-layer broadcasts. A reference broadcast does not contain an explicit timestamp; instead, receivers use its arrival time as a point of reference for comparing their clocks. In this paper, we use measurements from two wireless implementations to show that removing the sender's nondeterminism from the critical path in this way produces high-precision clock agreement (1.85 ± 1.28μsec, using off-the-shelf 802.11 wireless Ethernet), while using minimal energy. We also describe a novel algorithm that uses this same broadcast property to federate clocks across broadcast domains with a slow decay in precision (3.68 ± 2.57μsec after 4 hops). RBS can be used without external references, forming a precise relative timescale, or can maintain microsecond-level synchronization to an external timescale such as UTC. We show a significant improvement over the Network Time Protocol (NTP) under similar conditions.

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2,537 citations

Proceedings Article•DOI•

The flooding time synchronization protocol

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Miklós Maróti¹, Branislav Kusy¹, Gyula Simon¹, Akos Ledeczi¹•Institutions (1)

Vanderbilt University¹

03 Nov 2004

TL;DR: The FTSP achieves its robustness by utilizing periodic flooding of synchronization messages, and implicit dynamic topology update and comprehensive error compensation including clock skew estimation, which is markedly better than that of the existing RBS and TPSN algorithms.

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Abstract: Wireless sensor network applications, similarly to other distributed systems, often require a scalable time synchronization service enabling data consistency and coordination. This paper describes the Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol (FTSP), especially tailored for applications requiring stringent precision on resource limited wireless platforms. The proposed time synchronization protocol uses low communication bandwidth and it is robust against node and link failures. The FTSP achieves its robustness by utilizing periodic flooding of synchronization messages, and implicit dynamic topology update. The unique high precision performance is reached by utilizing MAC-layer time-stamping and comprehensive error compensation including clock skew estimation. The sources of delays and uncertainties in message transmission are analyzed in detail and techniques are presented to mitigate their effects. The FTSP was implemented on the Berkeley Mica2 platform and evaluated in a 60-node, multi-hop setup. The average per-hop synchronization error was in the one microsecond range, which is markedly better than that of the existing RBS and TPSN algorithms.

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2,267 citations

"A New Approach for Time Synchroniza..." refers background or methods in this paper

...other nodes so that they can estimate the relative clock offsets among each other [6]....
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...Therefore, the number of required timing messages in FTSP is equal to the number of sensor nodes times the number of beacons: NFTSP = NL....
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...Consequently, the benefit of PBS over RBS, TPSN, and FTSP is huge in terms of energy consumption with the cost of allocating 2 super nodes in the network....
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...As a variation of TPSN and RBS, the Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol (FTSP) [6] synchronizes the network by successively broadcasting the synchronization messages using MAC layer time-stamping and performing skew compensation based on a linear regression....
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...FTSP achieves a higher level of synchronization accuracy than either RBS or TPSN. Manuscript received March 30, 2007; revised August 6, 2007 and October 25, 2007; accepted January 14, 2008....
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