A Low Overhead Time Synchronization Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks
Weidong Wang · Jisuanji fangzhen · 2009
Low overhead is an important requirement of time synchronization algorithm of wireless sensor networks.In this paper,a low overhead time synchronization algorithm is proposed for reducing communication overhead in synchronizing.This algorithm,which is based on the level discovery mechanism used in TPSN,only selects fractional nodes in the broadcasting area of the current level node as the next level broadcast initiate nodes.As a result,the overhead of time synchronization is reduced effectively.The selection of next level broadcast initiate nodes is according to distance information of current level nodes.The relationship between number of broadcast packets and level-broadcast distance in different node density of networks is also analyzed.And the best level-broadcast distance in various node density of networks is given in the paper.Finally,simulation works validate that the algorithm greatly reduces the number of broadcasting packets for time synchronization in high density wireless sensor networks,while the synchronization precision is equivalent compared with TPSN.