An improved lightweight synchronisation primitive for sensornets

Sensornets must allocate limited computation and energy resources efficiently to maximise utility and lifetime. This task is complicated by the need to coordinate activity between nodes as sensornets are necessarily real-time collaborative systems. In this paper we present and evaluate lightweight adaptive protocols based on pulse-coupled oscillators to synchronise tasks within a unicellular sensornet. A near-optimal schedule is constructed and dynamically maintained under non-ideal network conditions.