Opportunities and Challenges

for Mesh Networks Using

Directional Antennas

Guoqing Li, Lily L. Yang, Steve W.

Conner and Bahareh Sadegh

Intel Corporation
Communication Technology Lab
Guoqing.c.li@intel.com
®
 Outline
Ÿ Introduction
Ÿ Opportunities and Benefits using Directional
Antennas for Mesh Networks
Ÿ Implications on Physical Layer
Ÿ Challenges for MAC layer
Ÿ Challenges for Mesh Routing
Ÿ Summary and Future Work

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 Introduction
Ÿ Academically--no definition for directional
antenna
Ÿ Informal definition
Ÿ Non-uniform antenna gain
Ÿ Much higher/lower gains in particular directions
Ÿ Realization
Ÿ Antenna array—multiple-element antenna
Ÿ Beamforming—a “weighted sum” operation
Ÿ MIMO

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 Introduction (cont.)

Ÿ Categorization based on beamforming

residence circuit
Ÿ Analog beamforming
Ÿ Beamforming implemented in analog circuit
Ÿ Example: Electronically Steerable Passive Array
Radiator (ESPAR)
Ÿ Digital beamforming
Ÿ Beamforming implemented in baseband
Ÿ Example: 802.11n

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 Introduction (cont.)
Ÿ Categorization based on antenna flexibility
Ÿ Switched beam antenna or sectored antenna
Ÿ Beam patterns are pre-defined
Ÿ Less flexible, relative simple
Ÿ Adaptive beamforming antenna
Ÿ Beam can be directed in any direction
Ÿ More adaptive, complicated algorithm

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 Outline
Ÿ Introduction
Ÿ Opportunities and Benefits Using Directional
Antennas for Mesh Networks
Ÿ Implications on Physical Layer
Ÿ Challenges for MAC layer
Ÿ Mesh Routing Challenges
Ÿ Summary and Future Work

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 Opportunities

Ÿ Motivation
Ÿ CSMA/CA does not work well in 802.11 mesh network
Ÿ TCP instability, unfairness [Xu01]
Ÿ Spatial reuse is more critical in mesh network
Ÿ Directional antenna is more appreciated in mesh
network
Ÿ Increased spatial reuse
Ÿ Improved routing performance
Ÿ Reduced transmission power

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 Opportunities (cont.)
• Increased network capacity
• Reduced interference
• Increased spatial reuse
• Reduced exposed node
• Theoretical/simulation/experimental results

X X

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 Opportunities (cont.)
Ÿ Increased signal quality
Ÿ Beamforming gain or diversity gain
Ÿ Interference rejection, e.g., 25dB reduction
Ÿ Extended communication range
Ÿ Improved network connectivity
Ÿ Reduced transmission power consumption

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 Opportunities (cont.)
Ÿ Improved routing performance
Ÿ Fewer hops without link degradation
Ÿ Less medium contention, less route delay, routing
msg flooding

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 Outline
Ÿ Introduction
Ÿ Opportunities and Benefits using Directional
Antennas for Mesh Networks
Ÿ Implications on Physical Layer
Ÿ Challenges for MAC layer
Ÿ Challenges for Mesh Routing
Ÿ Summary and Future Work

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 Implications on PHY Layer
Ÿ Physical carrier sensing
Ÿ Directional physical carrier sensing?
Ÿ Increased/decreased energy detection in particular directions?
Ÿ Reference direction
Ÿ Achievable antenna gain
Ÿ Sidelobe, backlobe [Takai02]
Ÿ Computation complexity and antenna size

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 Challenges for MAC Layer
Ÿ Non-constant transmission range
Ÿ directional antenna capability
Ÿ Direction of the transmitter/receiver relative to the radio
beams
Ÿ Non-constant Interference range
Ÿ Need adaptive physical carrier sensing accounting
for directional antennas

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 Challenges for MAC Layer
(cont.)
Ÿ Deafness problem [Choudhury03]
Ÿ An example

Ÿ Consequences
Ÿ Unproductive transmission
Ÿ Misleading information in the neighborhood
Ÿ Chain reaction
Ÿ Unfairness

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 Challenges for MAC Layer
(cont.)
Ÿ Deafness alleviation
Ÿ Broadcasting of directional transmission before the
transmission [Karokis03]
Ÿ E.g., RTS/CTS omni-transmission
Ÿ Neighboring nodes hold transmission
Ÿ Broadcasting of directional transmission after the
transmission [Choudhury03,Wu00]
Ÿ E.g, tone transmission
Ÿ Neighboring nodes adjusts transmission strategy
Ÿ Detect possible on-going deafness
Ÿ E.g., RTS filtering [Neufeld04]
Ÿ Neighboring nodes are more aware of possible deafness

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 Challenges for MAC Layer
(cont.)
Ÿ New hidden nodes
Ÿ Due to unheard control messages
Ÿ Due to asymmetric antenna gain in Tx and Rx

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 Challenges for MAC Layer
(cont.)
Ÿ Control packet transmission mode
Ÿ Omni-RTS/CTS [9-11,13,35-39]
Ÿ Directional-RTS/CTS [4,6,8-11]
Ÿ Hybrid [5,6,35,40]

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 Challenges for MAC Layer
(cont.)
Ÿ Control packets omni-directional
transmission
Ÿ Pros
Ÿ Deafness alleviation
Ÿ Does not need direction
information prior to transmission
Ÿ Cons
Ÿ Less spatial reuse
Ÿ May need a common reference
direction

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 Challenges for MAC Layer
(cont.)
Ÿ Control packets directional transmission
Ÿ Pros
Ÿ Maximize spatial reuse
Ÿ Does not require common reference direction
Ÿ Cons
Ÿ Require a prior knowledge on transmitting
direction
Ÿ Direction information can be outdated soon
Ÿ Comparison

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 Challenges for Routing
• Neighbor discovery
Ÿ O-O neighbor
Ÿ Hello message
Ÿ O-B neighbor
Ÿ How does the receiver point to the right
direction?
Ÿ B-O neighbor
Ÿ How does the transmitter point to the right
direction?
Ÿ B-B neighbor
Ÿ How can we ask two unsynchronized nodes to
beam toward each other at the same time?

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 Challenges for Routing (cont.)
Ÿ B-O neighbor discovery
Ÿ Random directional transmission [Bettstetter04]
Ÿ Omni-directional transmission with higher power
Ÿ Higher interference + Sacrificed spatial reuse
Ÿ Second-hop neighbor info [Amit04]
Ÿ Requires common reference direction
Ÿ Directional “Hello” broadcast [Romit03]
Ÿ Increased power
Ÿ Sweeping delay, reply waiting time: >100ms
Ÿ Suboptimal route
Ÿ B-B neighbor--no good solution so far

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 Challenges for Routing (cont.)
Ÿ Route calculation
Ÿ Direction information along the path
Ÿ Route maintenance
Ÿ Fast route rediscovery
Ÿ Second-hop information [Amit03], sector switching [Li04],
multipath routing [YLi04]

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 Summary and Future Work
Ÿ Opportunities of directional antenna for mesh
networks
Ÿ Implications and Challenges
Ÿ Future work
Ÿ Adaptive PCS accounting for directional antennas
Ÿ Tradeoff of control packet transmission mode
Ÿ Deafness alleviation
Ÿ Joint MAC and routing design

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 Thank You!

Email: Guoqing.c.li@intel.com

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