Evaluation of XBee-Pro transmission range for Wireless Sensor Network's node under forested environments based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) have been proposed to develop a monitoring system for forest in which XBee is one of prospective device for this implementation due to its simple set-up, low cost, low power consumption, and relative wide transmission coverage. Regarding the coverage area of WSN in forest is generally wide and the radio transmission is highly attenuated by foliage, the coverage range of device must be defined to optimize the number of nodes in the WSN systems. This paper delivers the empirical study of XBee transmission range in the forest based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). The measurements have conducted in two different type of forest, i.e. heterogeneous tropical forest and homogeneous pine forest. The measurement results found highly degrades of transmission range compared to non-forest environment with the maximum distance of transmission are 250 m and 330 m for both aforementioned types of forest consecutively.