Link performance modeling of wireless sensor network deployment for mission-critical applications (underground deployment)

Reliable communication of information from the incident scene to nearest responder (point-to-point communication) is vital to mission-critical operations. Sensor nodes such as mobile robots are deployed into some unfriendly environments to sense the environments and send information to the responders. However, the heterogeneous environments limit navigation and reliable transfer of critical data to the responders. This study proposes a communication model that supports operation of static sensor nodes and maneuvering of mobile sensor nodes in mission-critical tasks. It also shows semiempirical energy per bit to noise spectral density, empirical radio propagation models and parameters for some “harsh environments - underground-to-underground communications.” These values and models are obtained from combination of experimental approach and analytical approach of additive white Gaussian noise channel. They are used to ensure a reliable communication of wireless sensor nodes deployed in the environments for the purpose of mission-critical services. Also, the values and models are validated in a theoretical and semianalytical simulation scenarios. Result shows that both techniques are nearly identical. The semi-empirical approach, the proposed models, and values, can be used for efficient planning and future deployments of wireless sensor networks for mission-critical services.