Fundamentals of Efficient Communication in Wireless Underground Sensors Networks

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Fundamentals of Efficient Communication in Wireless Underground Sensor Networks Abstract Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSN) is a promising field that will enable a wide variety of novel applications that were not possible with current wired underground monitoring techniques. Compared to the current wired underground sensor networks, WUSN have several remarkable merits, such as concealment, ease of deployment, timeliness of data, reliability and coverage density. Despite its potential advantages, the realization of WUSN is challenging. The main challenge in this area is the realization of efficient and reliable underground links to establish multiple hops and efficiently disseminate data for seamless operation. Furthermore, the propagation characteristics of electromagnetic (EM) waves in soil prevent a straightforward characterization of underground wireless channel. Hence, advanced propagation and multi-path models are required to investigate the effects of soil in underground communication. This research provides advanced models and techniques to completely characterize the underground wireless channel and lay out the foundations for efficient communication in this environment. This model aims to characterize the propagation of EM wave in soil by considering multipath, soil composition, water content, and burial depth. Based on these peculiarities of communication in soil, an optimization framework is developed to characterize cross-layer communication aspects in WUSN. This framework jointly models problems at various protocol layers such as medium access control, routing, and transport in a cross-layer fashion. Moreover, a cross-layer framework is investigated to analyze the effects of various error control techniques and determine the optimal packet size in WUSNs. This optimization framework is based on three main optimization functions in terms of energy consumption, throughput, and resource utilization. Consequently, efficient communication protocols can be developed based on the foundations of the channel model developed in this research and the most efficient error control techniques determined by this framework.