An approach for discrete-event simulations of alamouti scheme in ad hoc networks

This paper presents an approach for discrete-event simulations of wireless ad hoc networks equipped with the transmit diversity technique known as the “Alamouti scheme.” The approach is based on Alamouti´s resulting effect on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at a given node when receiving a frame under multiple access interference (MAI). Hence, unlike previous works on MIMO ad hoc networks which have assumed fixed diversity gains or fully-connected scenarios, the proposed approach allows simulations of Alamouti-enabled ad hoc networks under any given topology and modulation scheme. Clear channel assessment (CCA) mechanisms for CSMA-based Alamouti networks are also investigated regarding their impact on spatial reuse and throughput. Simulations of Alamouti-equipped IEEE 802.11 ad hoc networks are showcased under topologies not fully-connected. The obtained results indicate that throughput gains may be achieved when CCA is based on the average energy received across all antennas, in which case robustness to errors is balanced with spatial reuse.