Low power synchronisation in wireless sensor networks via simple feedback controllers: The FLOPSYNC scheme

This paper presents a synchronisation scheme for wireless sensor networks named FLOPSYNC, which stands for Feedback LOw Power SYNChronisation. The scheme is based on a principle that makes it radically different from any other proposed so far, as the information used to achieve synchronisation is moved from the content of the involved packets to their time of arrival. This makes the scheme is significantly simpler than those available to date, while guaranteeing high precision and an extremely low (sub-μA) consumption. Moreover, since FLOPSYNC is entirely designed as a set of decentralised discrete-time controllers, it can account for hardware peculiarities in a formally sound and straightforward manner. This allows for an effective scheme tailoring to the devices at hand, and the necessities of the network. Experiments on real hardware are reported, to witness the simplicity and effectiveness of the proposal.