Evaluation of clock synchronization protocols for wireless sensor networks

In this paper we compare three clock synchronization protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks and evaluate their performances under different operating conditions. The "Dynamic Continuous Clock Synchronization" (DCCS), here is compared with the "Reference Broadcast Synchronization" (RBS) and the "Continuous Clock Synchronization" (CCS). The performance evaluation of the three protocols has been carried out via simulation using the OMNeT++ discrete event simulation system. Synchronization is a key aspect in WSNs but some features such as the limited bandwidth, hardware and energy available, as well as the nature of the wireless medium, make a good synchronization a challenging objective. We performed a set of simulations to evaluate how the protocols behave by varying some influent factors, and compared the results obtained in order to achieve information useful to select the most suitable protocol for a specific application.