Time Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Networks

Time synchronization services are often required to support coordinated operation of the nodes in sensor networking applications, potentially containing hundreds or thousands of elements. The synchronization service must provide application-specific performance (in terms of accuracy and overhead), and must be scalable and robust. For the design of suitable algorithms, the error sources of both the applied synchronization models and the physical devices must be understood and taken into account. In this chapter, various time synchronization models will be introduced, and their potential accuracy and complexity will be shown. The error sources of real devices and communication channels will also be analyzed. Based on the models, several synchronization primitives will be reviewed, and complex synchronization algorithms will be introduced and analyzed.