A Comprehensive Real Time Investigation on the Influence of Plant Species on Antenna Characteristics in Outdoor Wireless Communication

Wireless communication in an outdoor environment is influenced by different living and non-living creatures in the earth’s atmosphere. These influences are based on the interaction of EM (electromagnetic) waves emitted from antennas in communication systems. This research work focuses on analyzing the role of different plant species on antenna characteristics in outdoor wireless communication. The influence of different plant species on the communication system is analyzed by using the Fieldfox analyzer N9915A and microstrip antenna operating at 2.45 GHz. The variation in return loss of the microstrip antenna when placed nearer to a group of selected 25 plant species is analyzed and the obtained return loss is compared with the return loss of the antenna in free space. The relative change in return loss of antenna when tested with different species in free space is between 2.8 % to 73.68 %. From the analysis, it could be concluded that up to 73.68% loss in antenna characteristics can be brought in by the influence of certain species. The performance of the wireless communication system is dependent on the antenna performance which is influenced by the variation in return loss when coming in contact with different materials in the near field. This experimental investigation analyzed the influence of different plant species on wireless communication and observed that the pigmentation, water content, and mass density have an indirect influence on the antenna characteristics in wireless communication systems.