Optimal Performance Reference Broadcast Synchronization (OPRBS) for time synchronization in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

The demand for economical wireless sensor nodes have been increased due to advancement in processor, memory and wireless communication techniques. To give the on time and fast response for different actions, wireless sensor nodes work together in cooperation with each other. The most important requirement to maintain the co-ordination among different nodes during execution of an application is perfect time synchronization between them. Message packets are used for time synchronization in wireless sensor networks but transmission of these packets require significant amount of energy which is supplied by wireless sensor nodes. As these sensor nodes have limited battery capacity, usage of large number of packets has a negative impact upon their lifetime. So, to reduce the number of message packets required for the time synchronization in wireless sensor networks, we have used Optimal Performance Reference Broadcast Synchronization (OPRBS). This protocol performs synchronization with ranging i.e. select a particular range of broadcast according to transmission power of sensor nodes. With this decrease in the message packets for transmission, the convergence time among wireless sensor nodes is reduced and the lifetime of wireless sensor nodes is also extended as much as the amount of saved battery energy.