Outdoor Range Measurements in Sub-GHz License-free Radio Bands under Realistic Conditions

This paper presents setup and results of a long-term outdoor range experiment carried out in a real environment. The objective was to explore long-range wireless communication in sub-GHz license-free radio bands, i.e., 169, 433, and 868 MHz under more realistic conditions. Not only transmission range, but also packet loss and received signal strength were evaluated. A large set of radio configurations was used to study the impact of transmission power, bit rate, and packet size. Also, the relationship between packet loss and received signal strength was investigated. A model could be developed that can help determine the expected packet loss rates as a function of the radio configurations and measured RSSI values.