Hoc Routing Using Directional Antennas Technical Report

This report addresses the problem of using directional antennas in ad hoc routing. Although the problems with utilizing directional antennas have been visited in the past, the research has been confined mostly to issues related to medium access control. To determine whether directional antennas are beneficial to ad hoc networks, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of directional antennas on the performance of routing protocols as well. In this report, we evaluate the performance of a reactive routing protocol for different scenarios using directional antennas. Using insights gained from simulations, we propose routing strategies that adapt the routing protocol to directional communication. Our analysis shows that by using directional antennas, ad hoc networks may achieve better performance. However, scenarios exist in which using omnidirectional antennas may be more appropriate.