In this paper, we present a decentralised scheme that facili-
tates reliable network wide broadcast messaging without the
requirement of strict time synchronisation, for duty-cycled
low-power wireless embedded systems. In this emergent
broadcast slot (EBS) scheme, devices coordinate their wake-
up periods with their neighbours to exchange schedule infor-
mation locally. This leads to the emergence of local slot syn-
chronisation without the need for either network-wide syn-
chronisation or a centralised time synchronisation element.
We theoretically show that this scheme converges faster than
similar emergent and gradient-based approaches, which we
confirm by evaluation on real test-beds. We also show that
our scheme exhibits lower overheads while being more tol-
erant to disturbances caused by faulty nodes, wireless link
failures, contention and interference in presence of deter-
ministic propagation delays.