A Scenario-based Directional Communication Performance in Wireless Ad hoc Networks

Ad hoc wireless networks operate without any infrastructure where a node can be a source and a router at the same time. This indispensably requires high throughput and low delay performance throughout the wireless network coverage span, particularly under heavy traffic conditions. Recent research on using multiple antennas in beam-forming or multiplexing modes over a wireless channel has shown promising results in terms of high throughput and low delay. Directional antennas have shown to increase spatial reuse by allowing multiple transmitters and receivers to communicate using directional beams as long as they do not significantly interfere with each other. However, directional antenna performance asymptotically approaches the omni-directional performance in a high density ad hoc network. Simulation results in QualNet validate that average throughput and packet corruption ratio of directional antenna approach omni-directional performance.