Performance Improvement of Ad Hoc Networks by Deployment of Directional Antenna

Abstract

Ad hoc network which requires no infrastructure equipment such as access points is paid great attention in recent years. In ad hoc network, each host controls its wireless access in a distributed fashion. Generally, carrier sensing is used for detecting channel availability. By using RTS and CTS control frames, MAC sub-layer predicts the channel use and resolves hidden-terminal problem. Broadcast nature of RTS and CTS control frames leads to inefficient spatial reuse. One promising solution for this inefficient spatial reuse is usage of directional antenna. In ad hoc networks, heterogeneous network configuration is general, which means each host is equipped with different network facilities. For antennas, it will be general situation that not all hosts are equipped with directional antenna. This paper evaluates throughput performance of the ad hoc network in this realistic situation and shows how much performance improvement deployment of directional antenna will bring to the network.