Method and apparatus for hybrid time synchronization based on broadcast sequencing for wireless ad hoc networks

Abstract

Synchronizing a plurality of sensors of a wireless sensor network includes initiating, by a first sensor, a flood broadcast of a sequence discovery packet in the wireless sensor network; creating, by the first sensor in response to receiving back the sequence discovery packet, an initial broadcast sequence, wherein the initial broadcast sequence includes a list of sensor identifications, and wherein an adjacent pair of sensor identifications in the initial broadcast sequence correspond to a pair of neighbor sensors, and wherein the pair of neighbor sensors are able to communicate directly with each other; broadcasting, by the first sensor, the initial broadcast sequence, wherein the initial broadcast sequence specifies an initial order for the plurality of sensors to broadcast synchronization information to eliminate collisions in the wireless sensor network; and broadcasting, by the first sensor, a first timestamp, using a location of the first sensor in the initial broadcast sequence.