Continuous-Time Analysis of the Simple Averaging Scheme for Global Clock Synchronization in Sparsely Populated MANETs

In sparsely populated mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), mobile nodes are chronically isolated each other and they meet very occasionally. Global clock synchronization among nodes in such networks is a challenging problem because reference clock information cannot be disseminated promptly over nodes due to the lack of stable connections among nodes. In recent years, averaging-based algorithms for distributed global clock synchronization have been studied. In this paper, we conduct the continuous-time analysis of the simplest one, called the simple averaging scheme, where two mobile nodes exchange their local clock times when they meet and adjust their own clocks to the average of them. Through the analysis and simulation experiments, we reveal how the clock accuracy of nodes and meeting rates among them affect the rate of convergence to the steady state and the accuracy of clock synchronization in steady state.