BITS Pilani BITS Pilani

Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad

Wireless Sensor Network –

Time Sync
 Time Sync ?? BITS Pilani

• All nodes in the network have a common view of

time
Why Time Sync ?? BITS Pilani

• Target Tracking
• Speed estimation
• Event Detection
• Voice & Video Sync
• Security
• MAC-TDMA
• Local Clocks with crystal instability tend to drift
Reasons for drift BITS Pilani

• Temperature – few ppm in PC

• Frequency noise (10-4 - 10-6 )
• Clock Glitches
• Phase Noise
• Asymmetric Delay
14
13 Detected Interval – 1 units BITS Pilani
12
11
Actual Interval – 4 units
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Time Sync Protocol -
Requirements
BITS Pilani

• Robust
• Precision
• Energy Aware
• Server-Less
• Light Weight
• Tunable
• Immediacy
 BITS Pilani BITS Pilani
Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad

Wireless Sensor Network –

Time Sync Protocols
 Time Sync Types BITS Pilani

• Sender – Receiver synchronization

• Receiver – Receiver synchronization

Sender – Receiver Synch BITS Pilani
Time Sync Protocol for Sensor Networks
(TPSN)

• Level Discovery

• Sync
 TPSN – Level discovery BITS Pilani

Level 2
Level 5

Level 1
Level 4

Level 3
Level 0 level_discovery
 TPSN - Sync BITS Pilani

• Root node initiates – time sync

• Level 1 nodes – each wait for random time

• Reduce probability of collision at MAC

TPSN – Sync BITS Pilani

T2 T3
T2 = T1 +  + d
D - clock drift
d – propagation delay
synch_pulse ack

D = (T2 – T1) – (T4 – T3)

T1 T4 2
d = (T2 – T1) + (T4 – T3)
2
 TPSN - Sync BITS Pilani

• Nodes at Level 2 will be able to hear sync pulses

of nodes at Level 1

• Wait for a random time

• Attempt to sync with nodes at Level1

 TPSN - Issues BITS Pilani

• Unable to hear level_discovery from higher level

nodes – then wait and send level request

• Hear from different nodes – different levels – pick

smallest level

• No response to sync pulse as node at higher level

dead – send level request at higher energy levels

TPSN - Inaccuracies BITS Pilani

S1 M1 T1

P12

R2 S2

T3 M3 S3

S4 R4 P34
 BITS Pilani BITS Pilani
Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad

Wireless Sensor Network –

Time Sync Protocols
 Time Sync Types BITS Pilani

• Sender – Receiver synchronization

• Receiver – Receiver synchronization

Receiver – Receiver Synch BITS Pilani

Receiver Broadcasting Service (RBS)

• Three stages
• Transmitter broadcasts clock time
• Each rx records the time that the ref was rxed-
local clock
• Receivers exchange observations
 BITS Pilani

RBS

1 2

3 4
TPSN - Inaccuracies BITS Pilani

S1 M1 T1

P12

R2 S2

T3 M3 S3

S4 R4 P34
Inaccuracies Removed ?? BITS Pilani

p1
r 1 = T + p1

r 2 = T + p2

p2
Propagation delay - negligible

T2 = T1 +  + d
 Is RBS extremely accurate ? BITS Pilani

• No as both skew and offset contribute to lack of

sync
• Offset – as each node may start at different time
• Works well in single – hop
• Requires Time Translation in case of multi-hop
Time Translation BITS Pilani

PA sent
2
1 A E1 occurs 2 units later
E2 occurs
6

3 4 B PB sent 4 units later

PB sent 10 units before PA
5 7
E1 = PA + 2
E2 = PB - 4
PA = PB + 10
E1 – E2 = PB + 10 + 2 – PB +4
E1 – E2 = 16
 Time Sync Protocols BITS Pilani

• Type1 : Time servers

• Type2 : Translate time thro’ ntk
• Type3 : Self-organize to sync clock