Neighborhood Discovery and MAC protocol for MANETs using the multiple-directional-antennas scheme

Abstract:
Recently, many MAC protocols for mobile ad hoc networks using directional communication have been proposed. By using directional communication on each node, more links can be established simultaneously in the same area since each directional link consumes less space, hence higher network throughput can be obtained. In this paper, the directional scheme using multiple directional antennas has been assumed. A dedicated CSMA/CA based MAC protocol associated with the directional property of this scheme is given, based on our previous work. Its performance in mobile scenario has been studied. Furthermore, three types of neighborhood discovery algorithms are investigated to compare their robustness against mobility. Simulations show that the assumed directional scheme can significantly increase the network performance in terms of throughput and end-to-end delay, and the six-sector system applying the first type of neighborhood discovery algorithm can achieve the best performance in the specified 10 m/s mobile scenario when radiation power control method is not used.