An Experimental Study of Wi-Fi Access Service using Drones in Container Yard

Abstract

Currently, there are some restrictions on employees to access the network in the area of the container yard. This is not only because the operating computers are installed at the positions that are quite remote from the working areas in the container yard but also there is no wireless access network, or Wi-Fi, provided. Installing a fixed tower to transmit a radio signal providing the Wi-Fi access service is also not applicable in the container yard since the layout of placing containers is often changed periodically. Furthermore, the containers are made by metal and often stacked over that causes blocking of the radio signal resulting in a dead zone occurred in several spots in the area. Therefore, the work in this paper presents an experimental study for assessing feasibility to provide the Wi-Fi access service by using drones in the container yard. A business analysis, site survey, and prototype design are performed in the study. Then, the received signal strength, coverage area, and support data rate are defined as parameters to be measured in accordance with the drone altitudes in the experiments. Finally, the results verification and analysis are conducted for affirming the feasibility to use drones for providing the Wi-Fi access service in the container yard in the future.