RF propagation measurements in forest & plantation environments for Wireless Sensor Networks

This work reports Received Signal Strength (RSS) at 868/915/2400 MHz utilizing RF equipment and Matlab simulations in Forest and Plantation (Mango & Guava) Environments. Path loss, Vegetation water content and corresponding Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) values were deduced from the measured RSS from various positions in foliage environments using unit gain omnidirectional antennas at 1m height from the ground. Empirical foliage loss prediction models such as Cost 235, ITU-R and Weissberger models were compared with the experimental results. The research work presented in this paper is predominately targets characterizing short-range near ground radio link for Wireless Sensor Communications/Networks in vegetation environments.