Articles
Full Wave Simulation Of Radiowave Propagation In Unattended Ground Sensor Networks
February 10, 2009
By R. Ryan Ohs, Joseph W. Schuster, and Tat Y. Fung, Remcom, Inc.
Abstract — The moving window finite difference time domain (MWFDTD) method is used to analyze propagation between low to the ground antennas commonly used in wireless unattended ground sensor networks. The propagation path loss at 300 MHz is computed for several terrains exhibiting different degrees of roughness. From the pathloss results, the mean and standard deviation of the path loss distribution are determined as functions of distance from the transmitter. The mean loss is shown to be close to the loss over a flat ground for all roughness values, and the standard deviation is shown to increase with the roughness of the terrain.
Introduction
Accurate propagation simulation techniques are important for the development of wireless unattended ground sensor (UGS) networks that may be deployed around the world in diverse physical environments. The strong and widely varying effect of the physical environment on signal strength makes it undesirable to rely on a small number of simulations, or to depend on a limited set of measurements made in a few locations to evaluate the performance of a sensor network for all environments in which it could be deployed. In addition to accurately predict the path loss between specific sensor locations, it would also be useful if propagation models could provide an estimate of the mean path loss and the expected range in the path loss using only the distance between the sensors, the height of the antennas, and the roughness of the terrain.
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