Modelling Clock Synchronization in the Chess gMAC WSN Protocol

M. Schuts, F. Zhu, F. Heidarian, and F.W. Vaandrager. Modelling Clock Synchronization in the Chess gMAC WSN Protocol. In S. Andova et.al., editors. Proceedings First Workshop on Quantitative Formal Methods: Theory and Applications (QFM'09). Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 3rd November 2009. Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 13, pp. 41-54, 2009.

Abstract We present a detailled timed automata model of the clock synchronization algorithm that is currently being used in a wireless sensor network (WSN) that has been developed by the Dutch company Chess. Using the Uppaal model checker, we establish that in certain cases a static, fully synchronized network may eventually become unsynchronized if the current algorithm is used, even in a setting with infenitesimal clock drifts.

DOI: 10.4204/EPTCS.13.4
Slides from presentation at QFM'09: pptx
Slides from presentation at ROCKS meeting, Vaals, September 2009: pptx
Uppaal model: gMac.xml, gMac.q (version 17/11/2009)