  Wide area networks for surveying applications, such as seismic acquisition,
have been witnessing a significant increase in node density and area, where
large amounts of data have to be transferred in real-time. While cables can
meet these requirements, they account for a majority of the equipment weight,
maintenance, and labor costs. A novel wireless network architecture, compliant
with the IEEE 802.11ad standard, is proposed for establishing scalable,
energy-efficient, and gigabit-rate backhaul across very large areas.
Statistical path-loss and line-of-sight models are derived using real-world
topographic data in well-known seismic regions. Additionally, a cross-layer
analytical model is derived for 802.11 systems that can characterize the
overall latency and power consumption under the impact of co-channel
interference. On the basis of these models, a Frame Aggregation Power-Saving
Backhaul (FA-PSB) scheme is proposed for near-optimal power conservation under
a latency constraint, through a duty-cycled approach. A performance evaluation
with respect to the survey size and data generation rate reveals that the
proposed architecture and the FA-PSB scheme can support real-time acquisition
in large-scale high-density scenarios while operating with minimal power
consumption, thereby enhancing the lifetime of wireless seismic surveys. The
FA-PSB scheme can be applied to cellular backhaul and sensor networks as well.
