Network-Wide Time Synchronization in Multi-Channel Wireless Sensor Networks

Recent advances in wireless sensor technology have enabled simultaneous exploitation of multiple channels in wireless sensor systems. In this paper, a novel time synchronization algorithm is proposed for multichannel Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) called Multi-Channel Time Synchronization (MCTS) protocol. Time synchronization is critical for many WSN applications and enables efficient communications between sensor nodes along with intelligent spectrum access. Contrary to many existing protocols that do not exploit multi-channel communications, the protocol takes advantage of potential multiple channels and distributes the synchronization of different nodes to distinct channels and thus, reduces the convergence time of synchronization processes significantly.