An algorithm for accurate distributed time synchronization in mobile wireless sensor networks from noisy difference measurements

DOI10.1002/ASJC.1348zbMATH Open1354.93020arXiv1412.7888OpenAlexW2489003686MaRDI QIDQ2960108FDOQ2960108

Authors: Chenda Liao, Prabir Barooah 

Publication date: 7 February 2017

Published in: Asian Journal of Control (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We propose a distributed algorithm for time synchronization in mobile wireless sensor networks. Each node can employ the algorithm to estimate the global time based on its local clock time. The problem of time synchronization is formulated as nodes estimating their skews and offsets from noisy difference measurements of offsets and logarithm of skews; the measurements acquired by time-stamped message exchanges between neighbors. A distributed stochastic approximation based algorithm is proposed to ensure that the estimation error is mean square convergent (variance converging to 0) under certain conditions. A sequence of scheduled update instants is used to meet the requirement of decreasing time-varying gains that need to be synchronized across nodes with unsynchronized clocks. Moreover, a modification on the algorithm is also presented to improve the initial convergence speed. Simulations indicate that highly accurate global time estimates can be achieved with the proposed algorithm for long time durations, while the errors in competing algorithms increase over time.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.7888

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zbMATH Keywords

stochastic approximationclock synchronizationmobile networksdistributed estimationleader-follower consensustime synchronization

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Stochastic network models in operations research (90B15) Decentralized systems (93A14)

Cites Work

• Network Clock Synchronization Based on the Second-Order Linear Consensus Algorithm
• Consensus Conditions of Multi-Agent Systems With Time-Varying Topologies and Stochastic Communication Noises
• Stochastic consensus over noisy networks with Markovian and arbitrary switches
• Average TimeSynch: a consensus-based protocol for clock synchronization in wireless sensor networks
• Distributed clock skew and offset estimation from relative measurements in mobile networks with Markovian switching topology
• On the Smallest Eigenvalue of Grounded Laplacian Matrices
• On the convergence of linear stochastic approximation procedures

Cited In (2)

• On the feasibility of time estimation under isolation conditions in wireless sensor networks
• The spatial smoothing method of clock synchronization in wireless networks

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