Energy efficient time synchronization for target tracking in heterogeneous sensor networks

Time synchronization is essential in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) due to the distributed characteristics of WSNs. Especially, target tracking applications, which are one of the most popular applications in WSNs, require highly accurate time synchronization. In this paper, we propose our own time synchronization scheme which meets the requirements of target tracking applications while minimizing the energy consumptions. This is accomplished by taking advantage of heterogeneous sensor networks (HSNs) and the unique properties of target tracking. Our proposed scheme is evaluated in terms of time accuracy and energy efficiency. As you will see later, our scheme can provide better time accuracy and energy efficiency than TPSN and RBS.