Directional Networking in GPS Denied Environments—Time Synchronization

Mobile networks using directional antennas have many desirable properties such as Low Probability of Detection (LPD) and concentration of electromagnetic energy, resulting in improved range and data rates. To function properly, directional networks heavily depend on GPS use. This paper describes a decentralized algorithm, called “Fast RTSR”, for directional networking to re-construct time and position data when GPS is not available. We show that the Fast RTSR algorithm allows the entire network to achieve time synchronization with convergence time of O(n), where n is the number of nodes in the network. In our simulation experiments, the Fast RTSR algorithm can improve the convergence time by as much as 400 times over the previous baseline RTSR algorithm [1]. Our preliminary results also show that a constant timestamp error and node mobility will not impact the accuracy of the Fast RTSR algorithm. Keywords—GPS; directional networking; wireless; algorithms; tactical networks