A low complexity directional scheme for mobile ad hoc networks

In the context of single frequency band and omnidirectional communication, the throughput of wireless network is interference limited. Collision may occur if other signals impinge the destination while it is receiving the intended signal. To prevent collisions, CSMA/CA is applied to serialize the communication tasks. Recently, numerous directional schemes have been proposed to further increase the network throughput. In this paper, a practical scheme for directional communication based on a simplified switched beam technique is proposed on the physical layer. Additionally, the corresponding modifications on the CSMA/CA protocol are also studied to optimize the overall system performance. It is worthy of notice that this scheme is feasible for the mobile portable device under state-of-the-art technologies in terms of dimension, power consumption, hardware complexity and computing requirements. Preliminary simulations show that this scheme can increase the network throughput up to two times compared to an omni-directional system at the cost of only 10% higher power consumption