Relative direction determination in mobile computing networks

A novel relative direction determination method is presented for stations of mobile computing networks. The method uses a switched beam array for determining the direction of arrival (DOA) of the incident electromagnetic field in a time efficient way, in order to confront the strict timing requirements of packet switching networks. Additionally, the method associates certain MAC layer functions with different radiation patterns of the switched antenna array, in order to determine the orientation of directional beams on both sides of a communication link. The application of the method to an IEEE802.11 wireless network is presented and it is shown how the use of the method optimizes the network performance without requiring any modifications to the existing MAC protocol.