This paper proposes an energy-efficient time synchronization scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks(WSNs) based on the IEEE 1588 standard. Although a number of methods have been studied for time synchronization of WSNs, some applications require high precision time synchronization with very low power consumption. This paper presents a reduced implementation of IEEE 1588 precision time protocol (PTP) for WSNs. Within the proposed synchronization approach, a sensor node is synchronized using the timing message generated by a master node synchronized with GPS. This paper also presents experiments to evaluate the performance of the precision time synchronization of a slave-master pair of sensor nodes.

Peer Reviewed