Time Synchronization in Wireless Sensor Net- works

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consists of numerous small sensors. These sensors are wirelessly connected to each other for performing same task collectively such as monitoring weather conditions or specifically parameters like temperature, pressure, sound and vibrations etc. For all applications partial or full time synchronization is required and the message exchanged by sensor nodes for data fusion must be time stamped by each sensor’s local clock. This helps to achieve a common notion of time in wireless sensor networks. This paper contains a survey, relative study and analysis of existing time synchronization protocols for wireless sensor networks, based on various parameters. No single protocol is optimal and sufficient in all aspects for designing a clock synchronization system. So the comparative study and design considerations will help a lot to the designer for designing a scheme which may or may not be application specific.