Symmetric Clock Synchronization in Sensor Networks

In this paper, the authors argue that achieving symmetric errors is the key to an improved understanding of clock synchronization. They present a clock synchronization algorithm with drift compensation that implements this symmetric error paradigm. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated by measurements in an indoor testbed using the TinyNode hardware platform. They show that the remaining error is symmetric and in the range of the clock granularity. Clock synchronization is a major building block in wireless sensor networks. On the one hand, accurate clock synchronization is important for time-critical data fusion tasks.