Pulse-coupled synchronization is attracting increased attention in the sensor network community. Yet its properties have not been fully investigated. Using statistical analysis, we prove analytically that by controlling the number of connections at each node, synchronization can be guaranteed for generally pulse-coupled oscillators even in the presence of a refractory period. The approach does not require the initial phases to reside in half an oscillation cycle, which improves existing results. We also find that a refractory period can be strategically included to reduce idle listening at nearly no sacrifice to the synchronization probability. Given that reduced idle listening leads to higher energy efficiency in the synchronization process, the strategically added refractory period makes the synchronization scheme appealing to cheap sensor nodes, for which energy is a precious system resource. We also analyzed the pulse-coupled synchronization in the presence of unreliable communication links and obtained similar results. QualNet experimental results are given to confirm the effectiveness of the theoretical predictions.

中文翻译：

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无线传感器网络脉冲耦合同步策略的统计分析

脉冲耦合同步在传感器网络社区中引起越来越多的关注。然而，其性质尚未得到充分研究。使用统计分析，我们分析证明，通过控制每个节点的连接数，即使存在不应期，也可以保证一般脉冲耦合振荡器的同步。该方法不需要初始阶段驻留在半个振荡周期内，这改进了现有结果。我们还发现可以战略性地包括不应期以减少空闲侦听，而几乎不牺牲同步概率。鉴于减少空闲侦听导致同步过程中更高的能源效率，战略性增加的不应期使同步方案对廉价传感器节点具有吸引力，能源是一种宝贵的系统资源。我们还分析了存在不可靠通信链路的脉冲耦合同步，并获得了类似的结果。给出了 QualNet 实验结果以确认理论预测的有效性。