A random broadcast consensus synchronization algorithm for large scale wireless mesh networks

Abstract

In wireless mesh networks, a robust synchronization is an enabler for optimizing performance, for example allowing powerful radio resource management and energy saving. In this paper, we combine a consensus algorithm, already proven efficient for the synchronization of wireless mesh networks, with a random broadcast for fully distributing its implementation. Unfortunately, when the distances between the wireless devices increase, the accumulation of non-negligible propagation delays resulting from the consensus algorithm introduce a drift in addition to the clock skew and offset of each node. We introduce a monitoring and broadcasting of the drift correction by a reference node that does not participate to the consensus algorithm, and show this allows for both solving the clock drift and aligning all nodes to the reference node's clock.