Path Loss Models for IEEE 802.15.4 Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communications in Rural Areas

As a promising standard to realize low data-rate, low-power, and short-range communications among wireless devices, IEEE 802.15.4 has been widely applied in wireless sensor networks, and also been intensively investigated in vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. In this paper, we analyze the effects of antenna height on IEEE 802.15.4 V2I communications in rural areas. In particular, we first propose a geometry-based piecewise model to quantify the variable foliage effects. Furthermore, we show the feasibility of extending foliage loss predictions from static to mobile cases with classical empirical methods. Simulation results verify the precision of our proposed channel model in rural areas by comparing it with other channel models and realistic measurements.