Performance comparison of smart antenna techniques for spatial multiplexing in wireless ad hoc networks

Current wireless ad hoc networks use omnidirectional antennas at each node that allow it to transmit or receive only a single packet of data at given time. We investigate the use of smart antennas at each node which would facilitate simultaneous transmission (or simultaneous reception) of packets, thus improving the network throughput by making use of the many spatial channels created at the node. We show via simulations that it is preferable to use the beamforming technique over the switched beam technique at each of the nodes to obtain higher throughput.