Frequency-Switchable Routing Protocol for Dynamic Magnetic Induction-Based Wireless Underground Sensor Networks

A frequency-switch strategy is introduced into the magnetic induction-based wireless underground sensor network (MI-WUSN) for its high connectivity and network throughput, which then makes routing design more complex and challenging. To this end, we study the frequency-switchable routing design to start a discussion about the high-reliability routing design of MI-WUSN. First, we analyze the frequency-selective property and map the dynamic MI-WUSN into a multilayer network. Then, we take the network throughput and energy consumption into account and formulate the frequency switchable routing decision problem in dynamic MI-WUSN as a constrained optimization problem. Finally, we evaluate how various design parameters of our obtained protocol are affecting the network performance and explore the performance limit.