Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSNs), i.e., networks of wireless sensor nodes that operate below the ground surface, are the enabling technology of many emerging applications, such as intelligent agriculture, underground pipelines and power grid monitoring, oil reservoir monitoring, concealed border patrol, earthquake and landslide forecasting, and underground mine disaster prevention and rescue, amongst others. Despite their potential advantages, the realization of WUSNs is very challenging. The peculiarities of the underground environments prevent the direct use of most, if not all, existing wireless communication and networking solutions, mainly due to the very high path loss, small communication range, and high dynamics of electromagnetic (EM) waves in the underground environment. The objective of this project is to address the unique challenges for the realization of WUSNs in challenging underground environments. The proposed research is built on top of novel Magnetic Induction (MI)-based communication mechanisms as well as system architectures in underground soil medium, oil reservoirs, and mines and tunnels. This particular project has contributions along four major thrusts. First, a cross-layer communication framework based on the MI channel characteristics is proposed to achieve high-throughput, energy-efficient, and reliable underground communications. Second, a new Received Magnetic Filed Strength (RMFS)-based localization paradigm is proposed to exploit the unique multi-path and fading-free propagation properties of MI-based signals, which guarantees the accuracy, simplicity, and convenience of the localization strategy. Third, an optimal MI-based network deployment strategy is proposed for different WUSNs applications with the objective to minimize the coil density while maintaining the required bandwidth constraint and reliability requirements. Finally, a physical MI-based WUSN testbed is developed, which consists of our own designed MI-based sensor devices and an engineered underground environment, to validate our proposed solutions.
The proposed research is expected to pave the way for the realization and implementation of emerging WUSNs applications, which bring significant advances in the industrial productivity and homeland security, e.g., concealed border patrol. This project will bring together researchers in the areas of information theory, radio design, and networking, and enable the establishment of new research connections and interpretations. The project will support two graduate students. The solutions of the project will also result in patents for the proposed techniques and novel system architectures. The research results will be disseminated in important scientific conferences, journals and premier magazines of the field. The developed simulation tool and physical testbed will serve as the evaluation platform for the research community.
