An Improved Low Power Time Synchronization Algorithm for WirelessHART Network

The paper introduces an improved low power time synchronization algorithm operating Kalman filtering and frequency deviation compensation for WirelessHART sensor networks and simulates in the single-hop and whole-network situation. The communication between nodes with WirelessHART communication is performed by using timeslot unit of 10ms precision. It is crucial to ensure that there is no time deviation during the communication so that the network can operate normally in such a short timeslot. The simulation results show that the proposed time synchronization algorithm is efficient and effective for our target WirelessHART network system. In contrast with the currently used algorithm, the time deviation after 20 times of synchronization is reduced approximately 33% by using the improved synchronization algorithm in the single-hop test, and the error variance is significantly decreased in the whole network time synchronization as the hop number increases.