Experimental studies have demonstrated that the behavior of real links in low-power wireless networks (such as wireless sensor networks) deviates to a large extent from the ideal binary model used in several simulation studies. In particular, there is a large transitional region in wireless link quality that is characterized by significant levels of unreliability and asymmetry, significantly impacting the performance of higher-layer protocols. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the root causes of unreliability and asymmetry. In particular, we derive expressions for the distribution, expectation, and variance of the packet reception rate as a function of distance, as well as for the location and extent of the transitional region. These expressions incorporate important environmental and radio parameters such as the path loss exponent and shadowing variance of the channel, and the modulation, encoding, and hardware variance of the radios.
The authors in REF provided a comprehensive analysis of the root causes of link unreliability and asymmetry.
An analysis of unreliability and asymmetry in low-power wireless links
TOSN
Computer Science