Abstract
Cellular data links are an effective outdoor Internet access solution in urban environments. In this paper, we evaluate cellular data service as a potential data communication solution for oil field crews operating at remote areas in the United States. In our study, we first record the performance of cellular data service at twelve oil field locations. Measurement results show extensive availability of cellular service at those locations making it potentially a data communication solution at field locations. Spatial diversity from multiple antennas is shown to improve the cellular data link's speed but quality of the link varies significantly due to attenuated/faded cellular signal. We then design a measurement framework and deploy measurement units to five oil field crews and carry out a side-by-side comparison of two different satellite links and cellular links from two service providers. Analysis of data sets consisting of more than 300 days' measurement shows that the cellular link has comparable or even higher availability than conventional satellite link at many field operations. However, the quality of its coverage is location dependent. This indicates that both cellular and satellite links should be used to provide highly available and cost-effective data communication for such operations.
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