The Follow Data Stream Synchronization protocol for deterministic wireless sensor networks

As WSNs are energy constraint networks, how to eliminate transmission collisions and keep high energy efficiency are as crucial as the accuracy of a clock when selecting synchronization scheme. To achieve the goal, we propose a novel synchronization scheme-FDSS (Follow Data Stream Synchronization). In FDSS, time stamp will be added into the data and ACK frame when a selected node (SN) communicates with the reference node, while other normal nodes will achieve synchronization by overhearing the two frames and using the time information in them. There are no special frames for synchronization, and FDSS can reduce the communication overhead to the minimum. This paper introduces the basic concept of FDSS and investigates how to choose the selected node (SN) to carry time stamp in deterministic scheduled WSNs according to sensors' demanded synchronization period and data packet interval.