Performance improvement of ad hoc networks using directional antennas

Abstract

We investigate preventive link maintenance scheme to on-demand routing algorithms. The scheme of creating directional link is proposed to extend the life of link that is about to break. We see the performance improvement at network layer by using the proposed scheme. We do a comparative performance study between omni directional and directional antennas for DSR (On-demand routing protocol) using simulation with OPNET. By using directional antennas, substantial gain is achieved in terms of end-to-end delay, aggregate throughput, average data packets dropped, packet delivery ratio, and routing overhead. The proposed scheme is general and can be used with any other on-demand routing algorithms.