Clock synchronization based on pulse with propagation delay eliminated in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Clock synchronization is indispensable for numerous applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). When no common reference clock is available, the nodes must employ distributed synchronization techniques. This paper proposes, a distributed pulse‐based clock synchronisation approach, wherein the propagation delay is eliminated through signal ping‐pongs between neighbouring nodes. Such an approach can jointly estimate the clock skew and offset without requiring any reference clock. The whole synchronization process is completed at the physical (PHY) layer, effectively avoiding the random delay caused by packet queuing and retransmission. Simulation results show that the proposed approach can achieve higher synchronization accuracy compared with other existing methods.