2nd International ICST Workshop on Advances in Wireless Sensor Networks 2007

Research Article

Time Division Flooding Synchronization Protocol for Sensor Networks

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/MOBIQ.2007.4451045,
        author={ Yi  Zeng and Bo Hu and Hui  Feng},
        title={Time Division Flooding Synchronization Protocol for Sensor Networks},
        proceedings={2nd International ICST Workshop on Advances in Wireless Sensor Networks 2007},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={IWASN},
        year={2008},
        month={2},
        keywords={Clocks  Energy consumption  Energy efficiency  Floods  Frequency synchronization  Media Access Protocol  Multiaccess communication  Time division multiple access  Wireless application protocol  Wireless sensor networks},
        doi={10.1109/MOBIQ.2007.4451045}
    }
    
  • Yi Zeng
    Bo Hu
    Hui Feng
    Year: 2008
    Time Division Flooding Synchronization Protocol for Sensor Networks
    IWASN
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/MOBIQ.2007.4451045
Yi Zeng1,*, Bo Hu1,*, Hui Feng1,*
  • 1: Department of Electronic Engineering Fudan University No. 220 Handan Road, Shanghai, China
*Contact email: yzeng@fudan.edu.cn, bohu@fudan.edu.cn, hfeng@fudan.edu.cn

Abstract

Clock synchronization is an essential service for various applications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Most of available synchronization protocols are based on CSMA MAC scheme. They are energy inefficient in dense sensor networks. Despite many power-saving TDMA MAC protocols have been proposed, few of them are qualified to flood synchronization messages. The novel one here adopts a carefully designed time division flooding scheme, which divides time into slots and assigns each node a unique one for transmitting synchronization packets. In this way, the active duration of each node can be dramatically reduced. The new slot allocation policy guarantees active periods of nodes along the forwarding paths be scheduled successively, so synchronization packets can be spread out in a short time. Besides, a special clock frequency skew compensation technique is employed to prolong the re-synchronization interval. Simulation shows that our protocol achieves high energy efficiency and fast convergence speed.