{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:01:56Z","timestamp":1760241716377,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,26]],"date-time":"2018-07-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1532563200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100008425","name":"Conseller\u00eda de Cultura, Educaci\u00f3n e Ordenaci\u00f3n Universitaria, Xunta de Galicia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ED481A-2017\/300"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ED481A-2017\/300"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100008425","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this contribution, a narrowband radio channel model is proposed for rural scenarios in which the radio link operates under near-ground conditions for application in wireless sensor networks dedicated to smart agriculture. The received power attenuation was measured for both transmitter and receiver antennas placed at two different heights above ground: 0.2 and 0.4 m. Three frequency ranges, proposed for future 5G-IoT use case in agriculture, were chosen: 868 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz. Three ground coverings were tested in a rural scenario: soil, short and tall grass fields. The path loss was then estimated as dependent of the radio link range and a three-slope log-normal path loss model was tailored. Results are explained in terms of the first Fresnel zone obstruction. Commercial Zigbee sensor nodes operating at 2.4 GHz were used in a second experiment to estimate the link quality from the experimental Radio Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) received values. Two sensor nodes were placed at the same elevation above ground as in the previous experiment, only for short grass field case. The Quality of Service performance was determined in terms of theoretical bit error rate achieved for different digital modulations\u2014BPSK, 8PSK and 16QAM\u2014concluding remarkable results for an obstructed radio link.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s18082428","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,26]],"date-time":"2018-07-26T11:32:07Z","timestamp":1532604727000},"page":"2428","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":26,"title":["Narrowband Characterization of Near-Ground Radio Channel for Wireless Sensors Networks at 5G-IoT Bands"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7404-6413","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hicham","family":"Klaina","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Signal theory and Communications, University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3426-2909","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ana","family":"Vazquez Alejos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Signal theory and Communications, University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9097-8069","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Otman","family":"Aghzout","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telecommunications, ENSA, LabSit-FS, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, 93030 Tetouan, Morocco"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4911-9753","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francisco","family":"Falcone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Public University of Navarre, 31006 Pamplona, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,26]]},"reference":[{"doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Akyildiz, I.F., and Vuran, M.C. 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