Motes in the Jungle: Lessons Learned from a Short-Term WSN Deployment in the Ecuador Cloud Forest

We study the characteristics of the communication links of a wireless sensor network in a tropical cloud forest in Ecuador, in the context of a wildlife monitoring application. Thick vegetation and high humidity are in principle a challenge for the IEEE 802.15.4 radio we employed. We performed experiments with stationary-only nodes as well as in combination with mobile ones. Due to logistics, all the experiments were performed in isolation by the biologists on our team. In addition to discussing the characteristics of links in this previously unstudied environment, we also discuss the lessons we learned from operating under peculiar constraints in a peculiar deployment scenario.

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