Magnetic Induction Technology-Based Wireless Sensor Network for Underground Infrastructure, Monitoring Soil Conditions, and Environmental Observation Applications: Challenges and Future Aspects

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) especially with sensor nodes communicating with each other in medium other than air have been naive area of research since the last few years. In comparison to underwater communication, wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs) are now being used in a large number of applications ranging from environmental observation, estimating chances of earthquake, communicating in underground tunnels or mines, and infrastructure monitoring to soil monitoring for agricultural purposes. In spite of all such promising applications, due to harsh and dynamically changing soil characteristics including soil type, water content in soil, and soil temperature, underground communication with conventional electromagnetic (EM) wave-based technology could not prove to be feasible for long-distance communication. Alternatively, due to magnetic permeability of soil being similar to air, magnetic induction- (MI-) based approach was adopted using magnetic coils as antenna for sensor nodes. Subsequently, MI waveguide and 3D coil mechanisms were considered to improve the system efficiency. Attributing to different characteristics of underlying transmission channels, communication protocols as well as architecture of MI-based WUSNS (MI-WUSNs) have been developed with different approaches. In this review paper, in addition to the latest advancements made for MI-WUSNs, closely associated areas of MI-WUSNs have also been explored. Additionally, research areas which are still open to be worked upon have been detailed out.