|
| Item | Conventional synchronization method | Nature-inspired synchronization method |
|
| Reliability | High reliability and accuracy; short convergence time | Guaranteed reliability; accurate synchronization in large-scale networks |
|
| Scalability | Limited by the numbers of nodes and hops | Scalability maintained regardless of the number of nodes and changes |
|
| Robustness | Vulnerable to network topology changes, such as cluster head failures | Robust to poor communication environments and network topology changes |
|
| Cost | Very high; message exchange of upper layers is required | Low amount of data exchange; can be simply operated through pulse exchange at the physical layer without upper layer protocols |
|
| Complexity | Very high hardware (HW)/software (SW) complexity | Low HW/SW complexity (not necessary to save time information of other nodes in the memory) |
|
| Influential factors for performance | Synchronization accuracy depends on the distance to root nodes | Affected by node density, coupling strength, delay, noise, path loss, and modulation method |
|
| Advantage | High reliability; effective with an appropriate number of nodes; not dependent on the global clock in the case of RBS | High scalability and robustness; low cost and complexity; effective with a large number of nodes |
|
| Disadvantage | Poor performance of outer nodes in the topology in cases of centralized synchronization; a large amount of exchanged data is required in distributed synchronization | Synchronization is impossible when the transmission and reception delays take a long time; synchronization speed decreases with weak coupling strength and a small number of nodes |
|
