Evaluation of Robustness in Time Synchronization for Sensor Networks

In sensor networks, time synchronization between sensor nodes is important because it aects not only the eciency of information gathering but also energy consumption. Since sensor network environments and sizes change at varying rates, dierent time synchronization techniques are required for dierent networks. The pulse-coupled oscillator (PCO) model can be used to achieve local interactions between in- dividuals for the synchronization of entire networks. Other methods also exist, such as the multi-hop reference broad- cast synchronization (RBS) method which synchronizes the entire network by transmitting the dierences in the timers of reference nodes through networks divided into clusters. We compare here the inuence of jitter delay and packet loss resulting from the lower layer protocol on these two techniques. We also investigate the inuence on the perfor- mance of both methods on network size and wireless channel quality. The simulation results show the conditions in which each method performs better.