Development of a resilient wireless sensor network for real-time outdoor applications

Wireless sensor network deployed for any outdoor applications confronts link variations. The outdoor deployment can be appallingly affected by the precipitous change in the environmental conditions. The effect can vary accordingly with a single hop and a multi hop sensor network. In this paper, we analyze the impact of propagation factors such as shadowing, fading, foliage and rainfall on the link quality, received signal strength and packet reception rate. Then using a packet oriented simulation tool, Qualnet 5.0.2 a simulation framework was created to analyze the aftermath of the aforementioned propagation factors´ separate as well as integrated effect on the signal quality. The models developed from the simulation are tested and assessed with the data received from the real time wireless sensor network system for landslide monitoring, deployed at Munnar, India.