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Angular MAC: a framework for directional antennas in wireless mesh networks

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Abstract

Capacity of wireless mesh networks can be enhanced through the use of smart directional antennas, which not only enable nodes to have high quality links but also increase network throughput by allowing spatial reuse. This paper proposes a new MAC protocol and framework, called Angular MAC (ANMAC) that enables directional antennas in wireless mesh networks. The protocols and algorithms of the ANMAC framework fit well with the requirements of mesh networks such as neighbor discovery and self-configuration, while providing significant throughput enhancements. The throughput enhancements are proven by comprehensive simulations with realistic antenna patterns, including performance comparisons of ANMAC with directional schemes using a similar node architecture and omni 802.11. Also, the effect of contention window size is analyzed and a dynamic contention window adaptation algorithm is proposed to maximize the throughput of the self-configuring mesh network, by taking instantaneous traffic conditions into account.

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Notes

  1. Distributed Coordination Function Inter Frame Space as specified by [13].

  2. W opt is to be rounded up to the closest binary number to be consistent with 802.11.

  3. Each collision event is assumed to be independent of the current transmission, and it depends only on other concurrent transmissions. The reason behind this is the approximation in [2], that at each transmission attempt, and regardless of the number of retransmissions suffered, each packet collides with constant and independent probability p.

  4. SINR calculation determines whether a packet is valid or collided. Packets that do not satisfy the SINR threshold for 11 Mbps are ignored. The channel gain is determined by path loss and does not vary with time, since we assume static nodes. Also, the multi-path effect is not modeled since directional antennas reduce multi-path fading by reducing the number of multi-path components. Multipath can be alleviated by array beam forming and a channel adaptive null steering protocol, which are out of the scope of this paper.

  5. It is well known that the performance of omni 802.11 is independent of topology as long as all nodes are in one-hop neighborhood of each other. The maximum throughput of omni 802.11 is similar for the three cases for the given number of nodes. The variation of maximum throughput performance with increased number of nodes is studied later with contention channel enhancements.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by Cisco Systems University Research Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Electronics Engineering, Sabanci University, Orhanli-Tuzla, Istanbul, 34956, Turkey

    Erdem Ulukan & Özgür Gürbüz

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  1. Erdem Ulukan
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  2. Özgür Gürbüz
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Correspondence to Özgür Gürbüz.

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Ulukan, E., Gürbüz, Ö. Angular MAC: a framework for directional antennas in wireless mesh networks. Wireless Netw 14, 259–275 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-007-0048-3

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