Experimental Investigation of Optimal Relay Position for Magneto-Inductive Wireless Sensor Networks

Magneto-inductive (MI) waveguide technology is often proposed to increase the MI communication distance without adding significant cost and power consumption to the wireless sensor network. The idea is to add intermediate relaying nodes between transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) to relay the information from Tx to Rx. Our study of MI wave-guides has realized that adding a relay node improves the communication distance, however, the performance is greatly dependent on the position of the relaying node in the network. We therefore, in this work have investigated the effect of placement of a relay node and have determined the optimal relay position. We have performed various sets of experiments to thoroughly understand the behavior and identified three main regions: (a) for region 1, when the distance between Tx and Rx is equal or less than the diameter of the coils ( d ≤ 2 r ), the optimal relay position is close to Tx, (b) for region 2, when the distance between Tx and Rx is greater than diameter of the coils but less than twice the diameter ( 2 r < d < 4 r ), the optimal relay position lies in the center of Tx and Rx, and (c) for region 3, when the distance between the Tx and Rx is equal or greater than twice the diameter of the coils ( d ≥ 4 r ), the optimal relay position is close to Rx.