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Time Synchronization for High Latency Acoustic Networks

Affan Syed and John Heidemann
USC/Information Sciences Institute

Abstract

Distributed time synchronization is an important part of a sensor network where sensing and actuation must be coordinated across multiple nodes. Several time synchronization protocol that maximize accuracy and energy conservation have been developed, including FTSP, TPSN, and RBS. All of these assume nearly instantaneous wireless communication between sensor nodes; each of them work well in today's RF-based sensor networks. We are just beginning to explore underwater sensor networks where communication is primarily via acoustic telemetry. With acoustic communication, where the propagation speed is nearly five orders of magnitude slower than RF, assumptions about rapid communication are incorrect and new approaches to time synchronization are required. We present Time Synchronization for High Latency (TSHL), designed assuming such high latency propagation. We show through analysis and simulation that it achieves precise time synchronization with minimal energy cost. Although at very short distances existing protocols are adequate, TSHL shows twice the accuracy at 500m, demonstrating the need to model both clock skew and propagation latency.

Availability

This paper is available in several formats: abstract web page with pointers and cites, PDF, paper copies can be obtained by mail to the authors. Copyright terms for this paper appear below.

Reference

Syed06a: Affan Syed and John Heidemann. Time Synchronization for High Latency Acoustic Networks. In Proceedings of the IEEE Infocom, p. to appear. Barcelona, Spain, IEEE. April, 2006. <http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Syed06a.html>.

@inproceedings{Syed06a,
	author = "Affan Syed and John Heidemann",
	title = "Time Synchronization for High Latency Acoustic Networks",
	booktitle = "Proceedings of the  {IEEE} Infocom",
	year = "2006",
	publisher = "{IEEE}",
	address = "Barcelona, Spain",
	month = "April",
	pages = "to appear",
	keywords = "tshl, time synchronization, snuse",
	myorganization = "USC/Information Sciences Institute",
	copyrightholder = "{IEEE}",
	url = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Syed06a.html",
	pdfurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Syed06a.pdf",
}

Copyright

This paper is copyright © 2006 by IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.