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A Novel Solution for Time Synchronization in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 3769))

Abstract

Time synchronization is an important aspect of distributed computer systems and networks. Nodes must be synchronized to a common clock to determine slot durations for a TDMA based transmission scheme. Most efficient slot-assignment algorithms apportion the TDMA slots with the underlying assumption of a reasonably accurate global synchronization of the network. In this paper, we propose a novel synchronization protocol for ad hoc, sensor, and other dense multi-hop infrastructure-less wireless networks. The protocol performs a random leader election to achieve global network synchronization. We have analyzed the variation of synchronization time and error with different node densities and mobility speeds, by simulating the protocol. Expressions have been derived reflecting the worst case synchronization error, and the maximum synchronization time, for a network with uniform distribution of nodes. Simulation results show that out-of-band and piggybacked signaling have good accuracy of synchronization, and that a considerable bandwidth saving occurs with piggybacking on data or acknowledgment packets.

This work was supported by Infosys Technologies Ltd., Bangalore, India and Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India.

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Sekhar, A., Manoj, B.S., Murthy, C.S.R. (2005). A Novel Solution for Time Synchronization in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks. In: Bader, D.A., Parashar, M., Sridhar, V., Prasanna, V.K. (eds) High Performance Computing – HiPC 2005. HiPC 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3769. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11602569_36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11602569_36

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-30936-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32427-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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