Internet of Farming: Channel Characterization of Organic Communication Channels

Internet of Farming (IoF) is the application of Internet of Things (IoT) to agriculture use cases. Organic channels are any hydrocarbon based media. When organic channels are used to communicate data, they are termed Organic Communication Channels (OCCs). The accomplishments of Human Body Communication (HBC) in Body Area Networks (BANs) suggests OCCs' great potential when applied to cyber-physical systems. For example, soil-based and vegetation-based OCCs can be integrated into IoF scenarios. However other OCCs are less studied. This paper characterizes vegetation-based and soil-based OCCs through analysis of channel measurements and derivation of path loss equations. Presented results suggest log-distance path median path loss models hold for herbaceous vegetation-based channels. Furthermore, the results suggest vegetation-based channels were more frequency-selective than the soil-based channels examined.