Performance Evaluation of In-Metal-Pipe Wireless Communication for Network Expansion with IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN

The demand for wireless LAN is increasing in network construction within buildings because it has low installation and operational costs. However, it is difficult for a single access point to cover the entire indoor area with wireless communication due to the building structure or walls’ obstruction. Therefore, we focus on the metal pipes installed throughout the building and aim to utilize them as radio propagation paths to construct a wireless LAN network. Communication using metal pipes is expected to exhibit different characteristics from communication in open space because of reflections and diffractions, necessitating a detailed performance evaluation. This paper evaluates the communication performance of IEEE 802.11ax wireless LAN within metal pipes through simulations and practical experiments.