2-D radiative transport theory: Propagation loss predictions in a trunk dominated forest

With the emergence of new applications for wireless sensor networks (WSN) in outdoor environments, such as, WSN measuring environmental parameters in forested areas, there needs to be more precise analysis of the propagation loss between transmitters and receivers. The objective of this presentation is to demonstrate the importance of including the incoherent field as part of the total field to predict the propagation loss in a trunk dominated forest. A typical WSN in a forested environment involves an undetermined number of independent nodes where each independent node has many sensors that measure different environmental variables, such as, solar radiation, pressure, and humidity. To link all these nodes to a central node therefore, they need to meet the link reliability between each node and the central node. An accurate propagation loss prediction also needs to be obtained. As it will be shown in the present paper, the propagation loss changes with frequency, with the location of the transmitter and receiver between nodes, and with the biophysical parameters of the forest. In this context, the radiative transport (RT) theory is used to demonstrate the importance of the coherent and the incoherent fields on propagation loss. To check the soundness of the RT theory, a Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation will be employed.