0 16 32 48 64 80 96 112 128 144
−100
−80
−60
−90dBm
↓
RSS vs. Physical Distance in Linear Network
Distance Between Node Pairs (in feet)
RSS (in dBm)
0 16 32 48 64 80 96 112
−100
−80
−60
−90dBm
↓
RSS vs. Physical Distance in Regular 2D Network
Distance Between Node Pairs (in feet)
RSS (in dBm)
(a) System Level View: RSS vs. Physical Distance
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
0
0.5
1
RSS Ordering vs. Distance Ordering in Linear Network
node ID
Similarity
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0
0.5
1
RSS Ordering vs. Distance Ordering in Regular 2D Network
node ID
Similarity
(b) Each Node’s Point of View: Feature of RSS Monotonic At tenuation
Figure 2. Empirical Date from Large Scale Experiments
viewpoint of each sensing node), RSS values mostly decreased
monotonically with increasing distance, conveying information
about relative “near-far” relationships among 1-hop neighbors.
3.2 Large-Scale Experiments
We then conducted large-scale outdo or experimen ts with two
types of networks to verify the phenomena found in the prelim-
inary test. The first experiment was a linear network containing
54 MICAz nodes with a 1 6-foot intermediate distance between
adjacent nodes covering a 850-foot length along a road. In the
second experiment, we constructed a regular 2D network with a
7×7 grid-shaped layout including 49 nodes occupying an open-
air par king lot area of 10000 square feet. The setup of the large-
scale experiments will be further detailed in Section 6.
Figure 2 reports the empirical data obtained from the two
test-beds. Figure 2(a) plots the sensed RSS value for each pair
of nodes against the distance between the m, which verifies that
monotonic RSS-distance relationship doesn’t hold for the whole
network. In both the line ar network and the regular 2D network,
on one hand, RSS may vary dramatically f or identical distance.
For example, as shown in the right sub-figure of Figure 2(a),
RSS r anges from -60dBm to -90d Bm for a 16-foot distance in
the 2D network. On the other han d, a single RSS value may cor-
respond to a wide range of distances. For instance, as shown in
the left sub-figure, -90dBm could range from 32 fee t to 112 feet
in the linear network; even worse, -90 dBm RSS covers almost
all of the distance spectrum, i.e. from 16 feet to 112 feet, in the
2D network showing in the right sub-figure of Fig ure 2(a).
However, examining the data from the viewpoint of a single
node te lls a different story. For any node u
i
, we can obtain an
ordered node list, say A, by listing u
i
’s 1-hop neigh bors accord-
ing to their RSS values sensed at u
i
in decreasing order; and
another node list, say B, by ordering u
i
’s 1-hop neighbors by in-
creasing physical distance. Ideally, if the sensed RSS decreases
monotonically with increasing distance, A and B should be ide n-
tical. We d efine the similarity between two lists A and B as the
percentage of ac c ordant node pairs between them. For exam-
ple, let A = (u
1
,u
2
,u
3
) and B = (u
1
,u
3
,u
2
), then {u
1
, u
2
} is an
accordant node pair since in both A and B, node u
1
is ordered
ahead of u
2
; while { u
2
, u
3
} is not since their ordering gets re-
versed from A to B. We can see that if A and B are consistent
with their similarity close to 1, the monotonic feature holds.
Figure 2(b) illustrates the similarity results for all nodes in
two test-beds. We can see from the left sub-figure that in the
linear network, most of the n odes have a similarity close to
1 (the min imum, mean and maximum values of similarity are
0.86, 0.96 and 1, respec tively). It means th at in the linear net-
work, from single node’s po int of view, the RSS values for 1-hop
neighbors are approximately monotonic with the distance. This
finding still holds for the 2D regular network as shown in the
right sub-figure of Figure 2(b), wh e re the minimum, mean and
maximum similarities are 0.81 , 0.88 and 0.96, respectively.
Above experimen ts confirm that (i) RSS-distance relation-
ship does not hold at the system level, but (ii) the monotonic
feature approximately holds from the viewpoint of a single node.
3.3 Analysis and Discussion
This subsection discusses why the mo notonic RSS-distance
feature could hold from the viewpoint of a single node.
In addition to the physical distance between two nodes, there
are m a ny factors that affect RSS sensing results. Table 1 lists
some major aspects. We mar ked an aspect with a “
√
” if pre-
deploy en gineering efforts could possibly be applied to reduce
its impact, or a “×” if it would be hard or c ostly to address.
Table 1. Major Factors Affecting RSS Sensing
Types of Factors P
RF Transmit Parameters: Sending Power, Frequency, Modulation, Baud Rate ...
√
Antenna Issues: Transceiver Gain, Isotropic/directioinal, Orientation, He ight .. .
√
Random Noise: Interference, Nature Events, Mobile Effects, Electronic Pulse . ..
√
Propagation Path Loss: Terrain, Vegetation, Obstac le, Magnetic Field .. . ×
Node-level Sensing Discrepancy: LNA, IF, ADC Ref. Voltage, Ground Noise ... ×
At th e sender side, besides the sending power, th e carrier
frequency, modulation, baud rate a nd etc, determine the band-
width, center frequency and spectrum shape [47], which all af-
fect the RSS at the receiver side . Most of those parameters can
be co nfigured with small offset errors and maintain relatively
stable during the run time. Antenna issues such as isotropic
gain, orientation and etc, can also be carefully engineered in the
design phase. For transient random noise, traditional filter ing
methods are able to help reduce its impact. All of the above are
considered addressable without significant in-field calibra tion.
On the contrary, unpredictable e nvironmental factors are
much harder to handle. For example, radio path loss is unknown
and costly to profile in most cases because it is temporally dy-
namic and spatially unevenly distributed. Another difficult is-
sue is the sensing discrepancy among nodes. At the receiver
side, RSS sensing results are sensitive to small variance among
different nodes. For examp le , a tiny bias at the reference volt-
age of ADC or small variance of the LNA (low noise amplifier)
gain caused by different ground noise levels, may lead to dif-
ferent RSS values at two nodes even when their received signal
strengths are equivalent. Runtime sensing discr epancy among