Synchronization and ranging by scheduled broadcasting

In this paper we introduce a novel method for synchronization and range estimation in wireless networks, that can also be applied to other broadcast-based networks. The method is based on broadcasting messages by the nodes in a single neighborhood, and estimating their time of arrival at every node. Timing errors and pairwise distances are estimated simultaneously. The number of messages needed in our method is linear to the number of nodes, versus quadratic for commonly used techniques. The algorithm is analyzed by simulation, showing equal performance compared to the state of the art at significantly lower complexity in communication.