LT-Sync: A Lightweight Time Synchronization Scheme for High-Speed Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Time synchronization is a crucial element of cooperativity among underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs), and it plays an indispensable role in the application of and research into UWASNs. Although plenty of previous studies on time synchronization for UWASNs have been proposed and applied, mos...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chenyu Zhang, Huabing Wu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/3/528
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850279877502042112
author Chenyu Zhang
Huabing Wu
author_facet Chenyu Zhang
Huabing Wu
author_sort Chenyu Zhang
collection DOAJ
description Time synchronization is a crucial element of cooperativity among underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs), and it plays an indispensable role in the application of and research into UWASNs. Although plenty of previous studies on time synchronization for UWASNs have been proposed and applied, most of them cannot perform well when the nodes have high mobility, and they are characterized by low energy efficiency. Tri-Message is a scheme proposed for networks in high-latency and resource-constrained environments, but it works unsatisfactorily when the nodes are movable. In that case, there is no such scheme for high-speed UWASNs with low energy consumption. Herein, we propose LT-Sync, a lightweight time synchronization scheme for high-speed mobile UWASNs. This adopts a Doppler-shift-estimating method to derive the propagation delay of high-speed UWASNs when the unsynchronized node moves uniformly in a single direction. In addition, an underwater spread-spectrum method is adopted for signal receiving to obtain the accurate Doppler shift. The simulation results show that LT-Sync is more feasible for high-speed UWASNs compared to existing methods and has high energy efficiency.
format Article
id doaj-art-53815c4ef37b46cd8c2c2290a6f159d7
institution OA Journals
issn 2077-1312
language English
publishDate 2025-03-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
spelling doaj-art-53815c4ef37b46cd8c2c2290a6f159d72025-08-20T01:48:57ZengMDPI AGJournal of Marine Science and Engineering2077-13122025-03-0113352810.3390/jmse13030528LT-Sync: A Lightweight Time Synchronization Scheme for High-Speed Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor NetworksChenyu Zhang0Huabing Wu1National Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710000, ChinaNational Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710000, ChinaTime synchronization is a crucial element of cooperativity among underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs), and it plays an indispensable role in the application of and research into UWASNs. Although plenty of previous studies on time synchronization for UWASNs have been proposed and applied, most of them cannot perform well when the nodes have high mobility, and they are characterized by low energy efficiency. Tri-Message is a scheme proposed for networks in high-latency and resource-constrained environments, but it works unsatisfactorily when the nodes are movable. In that case, there is no such scheme for high-speed UWASNs with low energy consumption. Herein, we propose LT-Sync, a lightweight time synchronization scheme for high-speed mobile UWASNs. This adopts a Doppler-shift-estimating method to derive the propagation delay of high-speed UWASNs when the unsynchronized node moves uniformly in a single direction. In addition, an underwater spread-spectrum method is adopted for signal receiving to obtain the accurate Doppler shift. The simulation results show that LT-Sync is more feasible for high-speed UWASNs compared to existing methods and has high energy efficiency.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/3/528Doppler shiftspread spectrumtime synchronizationunderwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs)
spellingShingle Chenyu Zhang
Huabing Wu
LT-Sync: A Lightweight Time Synchronization Scheme for High-Speed Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Doppler shift
spread spectrum
time synchronization
underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs)
title LT-Sync: A Lightweight Time Synchronization Scheme for High-Speed Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
title_full LT-Sync: A Lightweight Time Synchronization Scheme for High-Speed Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
title_fullStr LT-Sync: A Lightweight Time Synchronization Scheme for High-Speed Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
title_full_unstemmed LT-Sync: A Lightweight Time Synchronization Scheme for High-Speed Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
title_short LT-Sync: A Lightweight Time Synchronization Scheme for High-Speed Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
title_sort lt sync a lightweight time synchronization scheme for high speed mobile underwater acoustic sensor networks
topic Doppler shift
spread spectrum
time synchronization
underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs)
url https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/3/528
work_keys_str_mv AT chenyuzhang ltsyncalightweighttimesynchronizationschemeforhighspeedmobileunderwateracousticsensornetworks
AT huabingwu ltsyncalightweighttimesynchronizationschemeforhighspeedmobileunderwateracousticsensornetworks