A Phased Array Antenna Testbed for Evaluating Directionality in Wireless Networks
by Douglas Sicker, Dirk Grunwald, Michael Buettner, Eric Anderson, Gary Yee, Dola Saha, Anmol Sheth
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| abstract: | One of the most important components of any mobile system
is the antenna; antenna design can overcome or cause a number
of problems that then must be addressed at other technology
layers. Modern mobile platforms are beginning to
include novel antenna technology such as MIMO and beam
steering; these technologies increase the complexity of evaluating
the effectiveness of topology formation algorithms,
routing and overall performance due to the large number of
configuration states the system can contain. Directional antennas
allow for significant improvements in link quality and
spatial reuse in wireless communication. Traditional antennas
with fixed direction are effective but unable to respond
to station mobility or a dynamic environment including such
factors as wind and foliage growth. There is a growing body
of work on using steerable and sectored antenna systems to
harness the efficiency of directional antennas while retaining
the flexibility of ad-hoc networks; however, there has been
very little work on implementation and measurement of such
networks.
We examined the physical-layer properties of directional
links in two real RF environments, and have evaluated
higher-layer strategies for utilizing these antennas. Our results
indicate the topology formation process must be a network
operation, and that simple link-by-link topology optimization
is likely to lead to poor overall performance. These
observations drive the formation of the testing and evaluation
tools we have developed. This paper describes the tools,
methodology and metrics we are using in the evaluation of
topology formation algorithms using a dynamically steerable
phase array system. |
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