Abstract: The whole-view test method for smart substation is a new test approach in which data transmission and time synchronization are implemented with wireless communication.This paper proposes a new time synchronization method based on wireless local area networks（WLAN） to satisfy the demand of synchronized triggering of data and time labeling in the system.The proposed method is implemented by integrating IEEE 1588 precise time protocol and IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard considering the specialty of transmission mechanism and data link in wireless communication,thus current available time synchronization method is improved.Simulation result shows that the precision of wireless time synchronization can be improved up to ±10 μs.