## 6 Field Validation  
The system was tested in multiple small-scale and two full-scale field tests that took place within the INGENIOUS project. The clean design of the overall system that incorporates all the submodules in a single solution made the deployment fast and easy, even when performed by personnel without any previous training on the system. The INGENIOUS toolkit includes a multitude of tools designed to help first responders with their work, since in majority, they are reliant on wireless connectivity for data exchange with remote services or operational picture software. Thus, one of the major tasks that had to be accomplished was the provision of high-bandwidth communication even inside collapsed buildings. To meet this requirement, we exploited the capability of the AP to use up to eight external antennas by utilizing a combination of directional and omnidirectional antennas, as seen in  
Figure 10: LoRa RSSI measurements overlaid on top of the satellite image of Figure 6.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline \hline
**Data Rate** & **2.4 GHz 802.11 ax** & **2.4 GHz 802.11n** & **5 GHz 802.11 ax** & **5 GHz 802.11 ac** \\ \hline
10 Mbps & 48,433 & 43,903 & 38,339 & 34,384 \\
50 Mbps & 22,561 & 17,909 & 16,609 & 14,323 \\
100 Mbps & 9114 & 11,572 & 6209 & 6527 \\
200 Mbps & 1582 & 0 & 620 & 0 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 3: Area in square meters that has a data rate greater than the value listed in the first column for different frequency bands and WiFi standards derived from the radio environment maps (REMs) of Figures 8 and 9.  
Figure 11, to illuminate the area of operations. The directional antenna ensured that the devices away from the AP had a sufficient transmission speed for their data.  
We have to note that the data transmission speed of the devices close to the AP is as important as for those away from it when it comes to providing wireless connectivity service at long distances. When multiple devices use the same wireless network, they have to share the available airtime, which is heavily impacted by devices that transmit data at lower speeds due to their distance from the AP and consume a high percentage of the overall airtime. As a result, for devices to be able to actually operate at the edge of coverage, the system should have low utilization to begin with. Here, 802.11 ax, with its higher transmission speed, provides an advantage compared to the previous generations of WiFi because it compresses the airtime used by devices close to the AP and frees the channel for usage by devices further away that have negotiated lower transmission speeds. This situation is further remedied by the dual-band capability of the AP, that permits moving devices from the 2.4 GHz to the 5 GHz band that is intended to service devices in the vicinity of the AP, freeing even more airtime. Low airtime utilization is also associated with the access latency to the network and aids in delivering a solution suitable to accommodate real-time services. Throughout the tests of the system, the round trip time between two station devices connected to the network did not exceed 90 ms even in cases of heavy network usage.