Experimental analysis of some radio propagation models for smart wireless sensor networks applications

Wireless Sensor networks (WSNs) protocols and algorithms are tested nowadays with simulations. Future WSNs applications require real experimental measurements and analysis to capture the exact behavior of sensor environment. Path loss models are crucial in developing efficient localization framework and to solve coverage issues in different WSNs applications. In this paper, some radio propagation model is studied and investigated experimentally in a university campus with six storey buildings around the measurement scenario. The radio module works on ZigBee technology and in the results are presented for only two channels i.e channel 21 (2455 MHz) and channel 22 (2460 MHz). The free-space model and log-distance model is analyzed with measured path loss. The radio module used for experiment comprises of 32-bit RISC Jennic 5168 microcontroller with 2.4 GHz 802.15.4 compliant transceiver.