Experimental Evaluation of In-Metal-Pipe Wireless LAN Communication with Different Frequencies

The rapid advancement in the use of IoT devices through digitalization is driving the development of network environments across various settings. In particular, the demand for wireless LANs in building networks is increasing due to their low installation and operational costs. Nevertheless, a single access point often struggles to provide full indoor coverage due to structural obstructions such as walls. Therefore, this paper proposes a new network system that utilizes the interior of metal pipes, which are part of existing building infrastructure, as radio wave propagation paths. This aims to expand communication coverages within buildings and establish a highly convenient wireless LAN network. However, communication using metal pipes is expected to exhibit unique characteristics compared to open-space communication because of reflections and diffractions, necessitating a detailed performance evaluation. In this paper, we evaluate the communication performance in-metal-pipe of IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN with different frequency bands through practical experiments. The experimental results provide insights into wireless network system design by demonstrating the communication stability of various wireless LAN configurations through RSSI measurements.