2013/04/02 by Hauke Holtkamp, Holtkamp, Hauke
Computer Science · Engineering · #C.2.1 #Energy Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence #Network Time Synchronization Technologies #Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) #cs.NI
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1304.0646
59 pages, 22 figures, master thesis 2008
arxiv created 2013/04/02 · openalex publication_date 2013/04/02 · arxiv updated 2013/04/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Due to their heavy restrictions on the hardware side, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) require specially adapted synchronization protocols to maximize measurement precision and minimize computation efforts and energy costs. A promising approach is given by the 'Firefly Protocol'. Inspired by the behavior of fireflies it is intrinsically robust, specific to the wireless broadcast nature of WSNs and promises high precision. So far only theoretically evaluated, this thesis implements the 'Firefly Protocol' on a system of MICAz Berkeley motes using TinyOS 2.x. In order to implement the theoretical framework on actual hardware, several adaptations were made to compensate hardware delays. Although Berkeley motes have the advantage of being readily available and highly flexible, they bear many delay sources which have to be addressed. In small networks, the protocol was found to deliver precisions up to three microseconds over one hop.