Distributed relative clock synchronization for wireless sensor networks

This paper considers an important problem in sensor networks, i.e. clock synchronization in wireless sensor networks with a focus on those scenarios where the inter-node time-of-arrival measurements are noisy. Initially, a simple convex, constraint based, optimization protocol for the problem of relative clock synchronization in wireless (sensor) networks is presented. Later, we provide a distributed discrete-time solution to the same problem and show exponential convergence. Then we provide a similar algorithm for achieving the same solution in continuous-time. Both the discrete-time algorithm and the continuous-time algorithm are distributed in that each node in the network requires very little information from its neighbours in the network. In the end, we provide a modification of the continuous time algorithm that achieves a finite-time convergence to the desired solution under some additional requirements. © 2011 IFAC