Empirical Modeling and Evaluation of Multi-Path Radio Channels on Wheat Farmland Based on Communication Quality

Abstract

<abstract> Wheat is one of the main food crops in northern China, but the process of wheat production lacks accurate and effective control. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) can be used to monitor environmental information and enable appropriate decision-making for a well-controlled production system. The farmland environment varies with crop growth, which can affect the propagation of electromagnetic signals. To predict the path loss of WSN signals and guide WSN node deployment and topology control, a multi-scale modeling approach is proposed for radio channels on wheat farmland. The environmental factors are extracted based on the relationship between crop growth and signal propagation path. According to different crop sheltering conditions, a logarithmic model and a statistical distribution model are adopted. An empirical model of multi-path channel fading is established and evaluated based on experimental data. The results show that the average correlation coefficient of the large-scale model is >0.95 under the non-sheltering conditions. On the other hand, the mean variation of the multi-scale probability distribution model is <0.1 under the sheltering conditions. The results indicate that an accurate description of multi-path radio channels on wheat farmland is achieved.