A Reliable Time Synchronization Scheme Based on Dynamic Selection of Extended Reference Nodes

In large-scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs), sensor nodes achieve time synchronization by exchanging messages between reference nodes and sensor nodes. However, the presence of anomalous nodes may lead to unreliable timestamp messages, severely affecting the accuracy of time synchronization. Thus, this paper proposes a reliable time synchronization scheme based on the dynamic selection of extended reference nodes (DERS). Firstly, the scheme identifies the set of extended reference nodes, detects abnormal nodes using a listening mechanism, and dynamically selects high-priority extended reference nodes to perform time synchronization correction. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed time synchronization scheme effectively mitigates the impact of unreliable nodes, reduces synchronization energy consumption, and enhances the accuracy of time synchronization.