Clock synchronization in WSN: Simulation vs. implementation

A WSN consists of numerous nodes gathering observations and combining these observations. Often, the timing of these observations is of importance when processing sensor data. Thus, a need for clock synchronization arises in WSNs. The CS-MNS algorithm has been proposed to fulfil this role. This paper compares simulation results and testbed results for CS-MNS. The simulations were done using Matlab, the testbed implementation was done in TinyOS 2.1, running on a mix of TelosB and MCIAz motes. The results demonstrate good qualitative agreement between simulation and experimentation in most cases. Quantitatively, the testbed results converge slower and achieve less synchronization accuracy, however.