Radio Irregularity Obstacles-Aware Model for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Radio irregularity and signal attenuation are common phenomena in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) caused by many factors, such as the impact of environmental characteristics, the non-isotropic path losses, and especially, the obstacle on the transmission (multi) paths. The diversity of these phenomena make difficulty for accurate evaluation of WSNs’ applications which specifically require high coverage and connectivity. Thus, in this paper, we investigated the radio irregularity and signal power attenuation, primarily due to the obstacle in WSNs. With empirical data obtained from experiments using a well-known sensor node,i.e., MICAz, we found that the signal strength attenuation is different in each case according to obstacle characteristics. Then, we proposed a radio model, called Radio Irregularity Obstacle-Aware Model (RIOAM). The results obtained from real measurements are also supported with regard to those from the simulation. Our model effectiveness is justified against a radio irregularity model (RIM) – higher precision with the existence of obstacles in WSNs.