A comparative study on the effects of spatial diversity in ad hoc networks using on-demand routing protocols

It is well known that spatial diversity in cellular communication systems is a powerful cost-effective communication technique used to improve the wireless link. Integrating the key benefits of spatial diversity into ad hoc networks is essential to meet the urgent demand for improved performance in scaleable networks. In contrast to cellular systems, mobile ad hoc networks use peer-to-peer packet transmissions to establish link connections to destinations, which require the use of elaborate routing protocols such as AODV and DSR. However, routing overhead compounded with co-channel interference and multipath fading still poses enormous challenges. In this study we propose to improve the network's performance through employing a spatial diversity model, designed to mitigate the effects of fading and reduce delay spread. We show through extensive simulation that using spatial diversity consistently resulted in improved network performance with both of the on-demand protocols, AODV and DSR.