FTSP

Wireless sensor network applications, similarly to other distributed systems, often require a scalable time synchronization service enabling data consistency and coordination. The Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol (FTSP) is especially tailored for applications requiring stringent precision on resource limited wireless platforms. FTSP uses low communication bandwidth and it is robust against node and link failures. It achieves its robustness by utilizing periodic flooding of synchronization messages, and implicit dynamic topology update. The unique high precision performance is reached by utilizing MAC-layer timestamping and comprehensive error compensation including clock skew estimation. FTSP was implemented on the Berkeley Mica2 platform and evaluated in a 60-node, multihop setup. The average per-hop synchronization error was in the one microsecond range.

Documents

Papers:

Maroti M., Kusy B., Simon G., Ledeczi A.: The Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol, ACM Second International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys 04), pp. 39-49, Baltimore, MD, November 3, 2004.