Modeling environmental effects on directionality in wireless networks

Realistic radio modeling is crucial for accurate simulation of wireless networks. This paper examines the effect of using directional antennas in real environments with non-trivial multipath effects. We find that the actual variation in signal strength as a function of antenna direction differs appreciably - sometimes dramatically - from what the antenna power (gain) pattern alone would suggest. We quantify and analyze this difference across several antenna types and environments, and provide a generalizable parametric model to support more realistic planning, simulation and analysis.