Dynamic Clustering-Based Time Synchronization for PLC-Assisted Power IoT in Smart Park

The consistent response of distributed resources in smart parks needs accurate time synchronization as support. Clustering-based synchronization approaches assisted by power line communication (PLC) systems can realize efficient and low-cost time synchronization of massive power internet of things (PIoT) devices in smart parks. However, the existing time synchronization error models are not adapted to the standard beacon-based PLC time synchronization method, and the dynamic changes in topology and channel gain lead to difficulties in optimizing time synchronization clusters. To address these challenges, we develop a clustering-based time synchronization framework for PLC-assisted PIoT in smart parks and model the optimization problem of minimizing the average time synchronization error. We formulate the optimization problem as a coalition game and propose a coalition game-based dynamic clustering time synchronization algorithm (CG-DCTS) to solve it. Simulation results show that CG-DCTS achieves superior performance in time synchronization accuracy compared with other time synchronization approaches.