Comparative Analysis of IEEE 802.11ah and LoRaWAN for IoT-Based Smart Grid Applications in Rural Northern Nigeria

This study comparatively analyses the suitability of IEEE 802.11ah (Wi-Fi HaLow) and LoRaWAN wireless communication technologies for Internet of Things based smart grid applications in rural distribution networks in Northern Nigeria, specifically for metering, fault detection, and demand monitoring functions. Rural distribution networks in Northern Nigeria present challenging communication infrastructure environments characterised by large inter-device distances, obstructed terrain, limited available communication infrastructure, and high sensitivity to communication equipment cost. Both IEEE 802.11ah and LoRaWAN are designed for low-power wide-area IoT applications but differ significantly in data rate, range, latency, and network architecture. A measurement campaign was conducted in rural areas of Sokoto and Gombe States using prototype IEEE 802.11ah and LoRaWAN evaluation kits to characterise link budget, packet delivery ratio, and communication latency across distances from 500m to 5km in open field and village terrain environments. Application-layer simulation assessed the performance of each technology for three smart grid use cases: automated meter reading at 15-minute intervals, fault current indicator reporting with a 500ms latency requirement, and distribution transformer load monitoring. Results show that LoRaWAN achieves superior range and packet delivery ratio at distances above 2km in the measured rural terrain profiles, while IEEE 802.11ah's higher data rate provides advantage for transformer monitoring applications with higher data volume requirements. A hybrid deployment architecture exploiting each technology's strengths for different application classes is recommended for rural Northern Nigerian smart grid deployments. Keywords: LoRaWAN, IEEE 802.11ah, smart grid, IoT communication, Northern Nigeria.