Sampling rate synchronisation in acoustic sensor networks with a pre-trained clock skew error model

In this paper we present a combined hardware/software approach for synchronizing the sampling clocks of an acoustic sensor network. A first clock frequency offset estimate is obtained by a time stamp exchange protocol with a low data rate and computational requirements. The estimate is then postprocessed by a Kalman filter which exploits the specific properties of the statistics of the frequency offset estimation error. In long term experiments the deviation between the sampling oscillators of two sensor nodes never exceeded half a sample with a wired and with a wireless link between the nodes. The achieved precision enables the estimation of time difference of arrival values across different hardware devices without sharing a common sampling hardware.