An Overview on Characteristics of Channel for Wireless Sensor Networks

EM (Electromagnetic) techniques enable efficient wireless communications in different media with different material absorptions. A wide range of novel and important applications in such challenged environments can be realized based on the EM communication mechanism. The main challenge in this area is the realization of efficient and reliable links to establish multi-hop communication and efficiently disseminate data for seamless operation. However, the hostile environments do not allow the direct usage of most, if not all, existing wireless communication and networking solutions, mainly because of the extremely high path loss, small communication range, and high dynamics of the EM waves when penetrating the different medium. In this paper, the propagation based on EM waves in the 315/433 MHz band through a solids: soil, coal, oil sand and liquids: water, salty water and crude oil medium is analyzed in order to explore its applicability. The developed model evaluates the total path loss, the transmission characteristics and bit error rate. The propagation characteristics are investigated through simulation. The theoretical analysis and the simulation results prove the feasibility of wireless communication in the 315/433 MHz band in these environment and highlight several important aspects in this field.