A directional antennas-based dual mode MAC protocol for ad hoc networks

Omni-directional antennas are usually used in most of the previous researches on wireless ad hoc networks. Smart antennas, however, may offer some benefits compared with them, i.e., enhancement of spatial reuse of the wireless channel and extension of the transmission range. We have proposed a MAC protocol called SWAMP, which consists of two access modes and uses four beamform patterns effectively, one mode mainly designed for spatial reuse of the wireless channel and the other mode mainly for extension of the communication area. This paper evaluates SWAMP through a random topology model with mobility and a grid topology model. The results show the protocol offers an improvement compared to the IEEE 802.11 DCF in terms of success ratio, throughput, delay and number of simultaneous communications.