Testing Envirnoment
General Specifications
As most LoRaWAN gateway and device deployments take place in urban environments, industrial facilities, and multi-storey buildings, extensive field testing was conducted to closely simulate real-world installation scenarios.
The testing campaign began with the MacLink Gen-2 LoRaWAN Outdoor Gateway deployed inside a four-storey office building, representing a typical indoor environment with concrete structures, metallic elements, elevators, and electrical interference. This phase focused on evaluating indoor LoRaWAN coverage, vertical signal penetration, RSSI, SNR, and packet delivery reliability across multiple floors.
In the second phase of testing, the gateway was mounted on the building rooftop to assess horizontal and radial LoRaWAN range in three different directions. This setup accounted for varying geographic conditions, partial obstructions, and non-uniform terrain, which are common in real deployments and directly influence LoRaWAN performance.
The gateway was further evaluated under near line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS conditions, reflecting practical deployment constraints where perfectly clear LOS is rarely achievable in urban and industrial environments. This approach ensured that the results accurately represent realistic LoRaWAN network behavior rather than ideal laboratory conditions.
Detailed performance metrics, observations, and corresponding graphs are presented below to support deployment planning, gateway placement decisions, and network design optimization.
| Test Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Location 1 | Office building with 4 floors, with the LoRaWAN gateway installed at the basement level |
| Location 2 | Office building with the LoRaWAN gateway mounted at the rooftop to evaluate horizontal and radial coverage |
| Location 3 | Open outdoor environment at Sinhagad Ghat Road, Maharashtra 411025, to evaluate long-range LoRaWAN performance |
| Sensor Placement (Location 1) | LoRaWAN sensor nodes installed on basement and floors 1, 2, 3, and 4 to measure signal strength and packet delivery across vertical building levels |
| Sensor Placement (Outdoor) | Sensors strategically positioned at varying distances from the gateway to evaluate RSSI, SNR, and packet loss over distance |