Fine Synchronization for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Gossip Averaging Algorithms

Abstract

As synchronization preambles represent a great overhead on wireless data packets, it could be interesting to powerful them. Fine synchronization solves this problem by homogenizing clock drift values on network regions. When coupled with any clock bias consensus method (coarse synchronization), fine synchronization allows the setup of time-based medium multiplexing schemes (TDMA, Slotted-ALOHA, ...) . This paper deals with a lightweight method able to perform the computation of local clock drift corrections using simple interaction rules between neighbor nodes. The solution proposed in this work has the main advantage to be robust to measurement noise while having the technologically interesting ability to drive clock drifts towards an average consensus.