Proximity Synchronization for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Location

Exhibition Hall, DeVos Center

Description

PURPOSE: Wireless sensor networks are designed to be used anywhere that monitoring of widely-dispersed geographic areas is required. In order to achieve the conflicting goals of high precision at low cost, software algorithms can be used to ensure the correctness of important metrics such as accurate timing measurements. The area of focus in this investigation is increasing the accuracy between the clocks of different sensor nodes, for the purpose of improving the accuracy of time-sensitive data acquisition. PROCEDURES: An initial study of published papers revealed several weaknesses and deficiencies of existing synchronization protocols, particularly with respect to mobile sensor networks. To address these issues, we have created a new clock synchronization protocol and developed a distributed, multi-threaded simulation environment to compare the performance of the new protocol against the old protocol. OUTCOME: Through extensive testing, the new protocol has been found to eliminate potential bottleneck constraints. When compared to the original protocol, these improvements provide for lower clock synchronization error across the network and substantially reduced power consumption. In addition, the improved protocol is more robust, in that it has the ability to dynamically reconnect and resynchronize as mobile nodes move in and out of range. IMPACT: This project has found that clock synchronization for wireless sensor networks can be improved by taking proximity into account. This improvement not only improves clock synchronization accuracy but also lowers power consumption and CPU use in wireless nodes.

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Apr 10th, 3:30 PM

Proximity Synchronization for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Exhibition Hall, DeVos Center

PURPOSE: Wireless sensor networks are designed to be used anywhere that monitoring of widely-dispersed geographic areas is required. In order to achieve the conflicting goals of high precision at low cost, software algorithms can be used to ensure the correctness of important metrics such as accurate timing measurements. The area of focus in this investigation is increasing the accuracy between the clocks of different sensor nodes, for the purpose of improving the accuracy of time-sensitive data acquisition. PROCEDURES: An initial study of published papers revealed several weaknesses and deficiencies of existing synchronization protocols, particularly with respect to mobile sensor networks. To address these issues, we have created a new clock synchronization protocol and developed a distributed, multi-threaded simulation environment to compare the performance of the new protocol against the old protocol. OUTCOME: Through extensive testing, the new protocol has been found to eliminate potential bottleneck constraints. When compared to the original protocol, these improvements provide for lower clock synchronization error across the network and substantially reduced power consumption. In addition, the improved protocol is more robust, in that it has the ability to dynamically reconnect and resynchronize as mobile nodes move in and out of range. IMPACT: This project has found that clock synchronization for wireless sensor networks can be improved by taking proximity into account. This improvement not only improves clock synchronization accuracy but also lowers power consumption and CPU use in wireless nodes.