Localized fine accuracy synchronization in Wireless Sensor Network based on consensus approach

This paper focus on the problem of ensuring Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) synchronization for measurement applications. The goal is to guarantee high accuracy synchronization requirements while maintaining at the same time a long network lifetime. In this view, we propose an approach that enforces synchronization accuracy only when it is needed and only in the sub-network of nodes involved in the actual measurement procedures. In such a scheme, traditional synchronization techniques based on master/slaves approaches are not easily employable. This is mainly due to the complications that arise when such a kind of schemes is used to manage synchronization in networks with a variable number of nodes and subject to time-varying transmission topologies. To avoid such a problem, in this paper we propose the adoption of a completely decentralized synchronization approach based on consensus.