Time synchronization in wireless sensor networks: A survey

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks consist of small devices distributed over geographical area. Each one of these devices has sensing, computing, and communicating components. Wireless sensor networks are used in many applications where partial or full time synchronization in the network is required. Time synchronization aims at equalizing the local times for all nodes in the network, if necessary. Since wireless sensor networks are limited in energy resources, computation capability, storage capacity, and bandwidth, traditional time synchronization algorithms like Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Global Positioning System (GPS) are impractical to synchronize the network. This paper explains the time synchronization problem in wireless sensor networks and details the basic algorithms proposed in this area.