Throughput Analysis of Ad Hoc Networks Using Multibeam Antennas with Priority-Based Channel Access Scheduling

Multibeam antennas (MBAs) can be used in ad hoc networks to improve throughput performance as a result of increased spatial reuse and extended coverage. For random access scheduling (RAS) protocol, contention resolution is required to overcome the potential collisions. Multipath propagation increases the contention, particularly when an MBA is implemented using the multiple fixed-beam antenna (MFBA) technique. It is desirable to incorporate priority-based channel access scheduling (CAS) into RAS for contention resolution and service differentiation. In this paper, we introduce two priority-based CAS algorithms for contention resolution respectively in single-path and multipath propagation environments, and analyze the one-hop throughput performance of the CAS schemes in an analytical framework. The impact of both quasi-stationary multipath propagation and the CAS algorithms is rigourously examined.