Performance Enhancement of Magnetic Induction Communication System Using Multilayer Coil Antenna

Abstract

Magnetic induction (MI) communication is a growing and promising physical layer technology for underground and underwater applications like pipeline leakage detection, border patrolling, soil condition monitoring crude oil monitoring and so on. MI communication technique has advantageous features like constant channel condition, negligible propagation delay and relatively large communication range as compared to radio frequency (RF) communication. In this technique, the coil itself acts as an antenna. For a simple MI transceiver system the communication range was a few meters. But, in order to cater the needs of long distance applications, the transmission range of MI system needs to be improved. This was accomplished by developing MI waveguide technique. A typical MI waveguide consists of transmitter and receiver coils separated by equally spaced relay coils. The existing waveguide technique uses single layer coils (SLCs). Compared to the single layer coil a multi-layered coil (MLC) has more self-inductance, more magnetic flux and at the same time more resistance. A MLC appears to be more efficient than a SLC on one hand, and on the other hand, it can result in losses too. Thus, there is a possibility of trade-off in performance. With this observation, we tried to enhance the performance of MI communication system by incorporating MLCs in waveguide structure. newlineIn this work, firstly we mathematically modeled the ohmic resistance, self-inductance, mutual inductance of MLCs. By incorporating MLCs in MI waveguide system, the transmission range is significantly enhanced. It is observed that the MI system is exhibiting better propagation characteristics in dry soil as compared to wet soil and fresh water media. In this analysis, the system bandwidth is found to be less than 1 kHz. This bandwidth is sufficient for low data rate applications. However, for some data critical applications like mine disaster rescue, border sensing the MI system bandwidth needs to be further enhanced. newline