Proposing a novel method for clock synchronization by reducing the Number of Synchronization Messages and Eliminating Non-Deterministic Errors in Wireless Sensor Networks

since WSNs have particular constraints and limitations'; synchronizing the physical times for these networks is considered to be a complex task. Although many algorithms have been proposed for synchronizing time in the network, there are two main error factors in all the proposed algorithms. The first factor is the clock drift which might be caused by the influence of different environmental factors; it might be generated on crystal oscillator which is inevitable. The second error factor is indeterminacy which is attributed to the existence of non-deterministic delays in sending and receiving messages between sensor nodes. These two factors together reduce the precision of synchronization algorithms. In this paper, the researchers proposed a new approach for dealing with the above-mentioned two problems and achieving better synchronization. The proposed approach is a combination of flooding time synchronization protocol (FTSP) and reference broadcast synchronization (RBS).This approach is intended to increase synchronization accuracy and network lifetime by reducing the number of synchronization messages sent between nodes and eliminating the most of non-deterministic errors in sending messages. The results of simulations conducted in the study indicated that the proposed approach is significantly more efficient than the FTSP and RBS methods in terms of parameters such as accurate synchronization, amount of sent packets and power consumption.

Keywords:

Time synchronization , Scalable Time Synchronization , Clock Drift , non-deterministic error , Scalable Time synchronization