Connectivity in Wireless Underground Sensor Networks

Abstract

Abstract-This paper investigates the probabilistic connectivity of the Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSNs). Due to the unique channel characteristics and the heterogeneous network architecture of the WUSNs, the connectivity analysis is much more complicated than in the terrestrial wireless sensor networks and ad hoc networks. To our knowledge, this connectivity problem in WUSNs was not addressed before. In this paper, a mathematical model is developed to analyze the probabilistic connectivity in WUSNs, which captures the effects of environmental parameters such as the soil moisture and soil composition, and system parameters such as the operating frequency, the sensor burial depth, the sink antenna height, the density of the sensor devices, the tolerable latency of the networks, and the number and the mobility of the above-ground sinks. The lower and upper bounds for the connectivity probability are derived analytically. Simulation studies are performed, where the theoretical bounds are validated, and the effects of several environmental and system parameters on the performance of these networks are investigated.

Impacts of soil moisture on cognitive radio underground networks

“…In [6], through electromagnetic field analysis and testbed verification, a three-path channel model is developed, which better describes the propagation of electromagnetic waves in soil. Models for underground-to-aboveground communication are developed in [4], [7], [16]. In [7], testbed experiments are conducted to verify the model.…”

Custom-designed wireless mote performance analysis in diverse node placement and antenna positioning scenarios for agricultural monitoring

“…Sun and Akyildiz (2010) have researched about the connectivity problems in WUSNs through a mathematical model. They have considered the effects of certain parameters like soil moisture, soil composition and operating frequency of the RF module, sensor burial depth, antenna height, etc.…”

BorderSense: Border patrol through advanced wireless sensor networks

“…The underground sensors can either communicate with the ground sensors or other underground sensors [30,31]. Due to the complex underground channel characteristics [19,38], new physical layer propagation techniques are needed to realize the communications, such as underground electromagnetic wave techniques or magnetic induction waveguides [4,33,35,34]. Different from the camera sensors in the surveillance towers or UAVs, the ground/underground sensors can detect non-line-of-sight intruders.…”