Distributed time synchronization in wireless sensor networks via second-order consensus algorithms

Abstract

This paper proposes a distributed second-order consensus time synchronization, which incorporates the second-order consensus algorithm into wireless sensor networks. Since local clocks may have different skews and offsets, the algorithm is designed to include offset compensation and skew compensation. The local clocks are not directly modified, thus the virtual clocks are built according to the local clocks via the compensation parameters. Each node achieves a virtual consensus clock by periodically updated compensation parameters. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified through a number of simulations in a mesh network. It is proved that the proposed algorithm has the advantage of being distributed, asymptotic convergence, and robust to new node joining.

Keywords

wireless sensor network / time synchronization / second-order consensus / clock skew / clock offset

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