Performance Evaluation of Distributed Wireless Networks Using Smart Antennas in Low-Rank Channel

This paper investigates the performance of a distributed network in which the nodes are equipped with fully adaptive smart antennas. The main goal is the evaluation of the influence that the geometrical configuration of the antenna array has on network throughput and packet delay. Analysis simulations are performed to study the relationship between the geometry of the antenna array and the network topology. In the paper, the performance degradation due to the small channel angular spreads and to the speed of mobile nodes is investigated. The results, which hold for the low-rank channel model only, extend to this specific case from previous results obtained in ideal channel conditions. The study adopts an access scheme, previously proposed for ad-hoc networks, able to exploit the interferer suppression capabilities of smart antennas, together with realist models for the antenna and the channel behaviors.