On the throughput of linear wireless multi-hop networks using directional antennas

The goal of this paper is to examine and evaluate the advantages of utilizing directional antennas in a simple linear wireless network. We consider a one-dimensional communication network with a single source node S, a single destination node D, and N-1 intermediate nodes placed equidistantly between them. Multi-hop transmission is a natural extension of single-hop transmission that can take advantage of the reduced attenuation between closely spaced relay nodes. After replacing omni-directional antennas with directional ones, the following effects take place: Each node transmits now with less power; interference is caused only in the direction of transmission; finally, the simultaneously transmitting nodes can be closer to each other, thus allowing higher frequency reuse. All these result in substantial gains in the end-to-end network throughput.