IEEE 802.11ah Throughput Measurement with Real Devices in Forest for High Speed Forest Networks

We evaluate IEEE802.11ah communication quality in the forests in mountain areas, mainly for video communications. Compared with Wi-Fi or IEEE802.11ax, IEEE802.11ah can cover a larger area but obtain lower transmission speed or throughput. In a forest, many trees, branches, and leaves can be obstacles to radio waves as NLOS (Non-Line of Sight), but the signal attenuation level depends on the density of such obstacles. We used real devices of IEEE802.11ah of consumer markets on the experiments in areal forest for various distance between the devices. IEEE802.11ah devices showed their quality of service of communication at around 230 meters distance with more than 2.5 Mbps throughput, which is enough for video conferencing or 720p video streaming.