Low Cost Time Synchronization Protocol for Wireless Sensor Network

A time synchronization protocol for WSN is required to compensate time discrepancy. Time discrepancy among sensor nodes inevitably happens in WSN due to several internal and external factors. In order to make WSN's own job done effectively, a time synchronization protocol should be designed to achieve low execution time and low network traffic as well as accurate synchronization. Several synchronization protocols have been proposed to provide accurate time synchronization but do not consider execution time and network traffic for time synchronization. This paper proposes MNTP; it provides rapid and accurate time synchronization in multi-hop communication range. It presents a new broadcast scheme and time stamping mechanism to achieve low execution time and low network traffic along with accurate synchronization. Evaluation results show that MNTP improves synchronization accuracy up to 22% in single-hop and 51% in multi-hop respectively. MNTP also has 67 times and 58 times lower execution time and network traffic when 300 nodes are deployed in 20 x 20 m(2) sensor field.