Uittreksel
Wireless body area networks (WBANs) provide a wide variety of opportunities in the domain of human health monitoring. These networks can also be effectively used in health tracking of dairy cows to enhance productivity and cow welfare (e.g., temperature or mobility monitoring). However, the deployment of WBANs requires a proper characterization of the on-body wireless channel between nodes placed on the cow’s body. The goal of this work is to develop on-body path loss models for dairy cows at 2.4 GHz, obtained from both simulations and experiments.
Path loss measurements were performed using two ZigBee motes. The receiving mote was attached to the cow’s collar, while the transmitting mote was positioned at 33 different locations on the cow’s body. On-body wireless communication links were investigated between the neck (collar) and four other body parts where sensors could be attached: hind and front leg, udder, and ear. The same measurement scenarios were simulated using the electromagnetic solver SEMCAD-X. In order to develop a path loss model of the whole body, all 33 positions were considered. A one-slope log-normal path loss model was used to fit the obtained path loss values.
In all investigated scenarios, the simulated path loss values showed an excellent agreement with the values obtained from the measurements. The lowest path loss values were obtained for the ear-neck scenario with an average of 65 dB, due to the short distance between the ear and the neck. The udder-neck scenario presented the highest path loss values with an average of 80 dB. The path loss models had a path loss exponent of 3.1 and a path loss at reference distance (10 cm) of 44 dB. Based on these results, WBANs for dairy cows can be realized in practice. Also, they can be used to investigate the performances of WBANs in terms of packet error rate and energy efficiency.
Path loss measurements were performed using two ZigBee motes. The receiving mote was attached to the cow’s collar, while the transmitting mote was positioned at 33 different locations on the cow’s body. On-body wireless communication links were investigated between the neck (collar) and four other body parts where sensors could be attached: hind and front leg, udder, and ear. The same measurement scenarios were simulated using the electromagnetic solver SEMCAD-X. In order to develop a path loss model of the whole body, all 33 positions were considered. A one-slope log-normal path loss model was used to fit the obtained path loss values.
In all investigated scenarios, the simulated path loss values showed an excellent agreement with the values obtained from the measurements. The lowest path loss values were obtained for the ear-neck scenario with an average of 65 dB, due to the short distance between the ear and the neck. The udder-neck scenario presented the highest path loss values with an average of 80 dB. The path loss models had a path loss exponent of 3.1 and a path loss at reference distance (10 cm) of 44 dB. Based on these results, WBANs for dairy cows can be realized in practice. Also, they can be used to investigate the performances of WBANs in terms of packet error rate and energy efficiency.
| Oorspronkelijke taal | Engels |
|---|---|
| Publicatiestatus | Gepubliceerd - 2016 |