Performance Evaluation of Sink Node Selection for Time Synchronization in WSN

Co-ordination among the nodes and having a common notion of clock are essential criterion for the effective functioning of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), demand critical time synchronization process. Nodes normally deployed goes unsynchronized due to the associated low cost crystal oscillators. The desired time co-ordination is obtained by frequent network-wide resynchronization. Tree formation among the nodes and the length of the branch defines the precision error as the error propagate along the branch. The frequency of resynchronization depends on the skew of these oscillators which is a parameter of the application. The energy the nodes bleed for synchronization, effects the lifetime of the network. The performance of network-wide time synchronization with respect to the energy efficiency and accuracy obtained based on the sink node selection in WSN is evaluated. Two sink node selection techniques were discussed and a comparative simulation study was carried out with respect to the lifetime of the network.