An approach for the integration of smart antennas in the design and simulation of vehicular ad-hoc networks

The radio channel is a limiting resource in vehicular ad-hoc networks. A lot of possible applications in the field of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication will make use of sending messages to destination nodes addressed by geographical coordinates. Beam forming, which is the transmission of a message´s signal explicitly into a specific spatial area by exploiting a phase-delayed array of antennas, can be seen as an approach to reduce the overall channel load in vehicular ad-hoc networks. Due to the implementation of today´s network simulators, the analysis of the advantages and possible drawbacks of beam forming on vehicular ad-hoc network scenarios is hardly possible. In this paper we show a way in which a simulation framework typically used for research on vehicular ad-hoc networks can be extended by a realistic channel simulation and a physical layer simulation which allows studying the beam forming abilities of a smart antenna system.