Centralized synchronization methods for distributed detection in sensor networks

In this paper we consider a network of distributed sensors which simultaneously measure a physical parameter of interest, subject to a certain sensing error probability. The sensed information at each of such nodes is forwarded to a central receiver through parallel independent AWGN channels. In this scenario the signals from different sensors can arrive at the central receiver at different instants of time each subject to a different time delay. In order to properly fuse the streams of data arriving from different sensors these streams need to be synchronized. In this paper we propose and compare, via numerical simulations, several new synchronization mechanisms specifically tailored for this setup.