Energy Consumption of Clocks Synchronization on a Routing Algorithm for Sensor Networks

Cluditem is a routing algorithm for wireless sensor networks developed for applications of environmental monitoring with periodic measurement of variables. These applications tolerate a maximum phase shift of the clocks of nodes in the order of milliseconds. This paper proposes two centralized synchronization schemes that introduce a limited processing load. The objective of the work was to assess the impact on the energy consumption of the incorporation of synchronization techniques described. Simulations of the full communication protocol were conducted in the NS2 environment and a comparative study of results was performed. This study showed that the first proposed schema is more convenient with respect to energy consumption, when the area to monitor has reduced dimensions. On the other hand, the second scheme, although it permits to work in larger areas, introduces a decrease in the network lifetime in the order of 14%.