Channel modeling and analysis with mineralogy based spectroscopic dielectric model in wireless underground sensor networks

This paper develops, a channel model forpropagation in Wireless Underground Sensor Network (WUSN) under three different communication scenarios viz: UG-UG, UG-AG and AG-UG, using Mineralogy Based Spectroscopic Dielectric Model (MBSDM). This is preferred over the Peplinski Soil Dielectric model for calculating the values of Complex Dielectric Constant (CDC) for a given soil type based on various parameters inherent to the soil. The path loss captures the effects of environment parameters such as sand or clay content, horizontal distance between two sensor nodes under consideration, burial depth and Volumetric Water Content (VWC) of the soil sample, including system parameters such as the operating frequency of the transmitted signal. This study allows us to realize the path loss and received power varies with the given set of parameters. The propagation characteristics between the sensor nodes are investigated in MATLAB environment.