The impact of sand propagation environment on the performance of wireless sensor networks

A comparative methodology for performance evaluation of the wireless sensor network (WSN) protocols deployed in sand environment is proposed. This methodology is created based on the usage of empirical radio frequency (RF) propagation model that is able to include environmental factors influencing signal propagation of wireless sensor nodes deployed in sandy environment. Furthermore, radio energy model for predicting energy dissipation of WSN deployed in such environment is derived. In order to demonstrate the performance variances of WSN in this particular environment, a comparison between the simulations of WSN deployments is presented. This comparison shows great differences in the lifetime, and, hence, in the throughput. Moreover, a comparison between the generated results using sand, free space, and two-ray propagation models indicates the imprecision of using these theoretical propagation models to evaluate the performance of WSNs.