Experimental Results For the Propagation of Outdoor IEEE802.11 Links

Inhalt:
WiFi-based Long Distance (WiLD) networks have emerged as a promising alternative technology approach for providing Internet in rural areas. An important factor in network planning of these wireless networks is estimating the path loss. In this work, we present various propagation models we found suitable for point-to-point (P2P) operation in the WiFi frequency bands. We conducted outdoor experiments with commercial offthe- shelf (COTS) hardware in our testbed made of 7 different long-distance links ranging from 450 m to 10.3 km and a mobile measurement station. We found that for short links with omni-directional antennas ground-reflection is a measurable phenomenon. For longer links, we show that either FSPL or the Longley-Rice model provides accurate results for certain links. We conclude that a good site survey is needed to exclude influences not included in the propagation models.