Performance comparison of advanced antenna systems for wireless mesh routers in an outdoor environment

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare the low‐cost switched‐beam antennas and the more expensive adaptive antennas in a wireless mesh network (WMN) scenario.

Design/methodology/approach

A mathematical framework is adopted in order to determine, for the two antenna systems, the number of sustainable simultaneous communications and the achievable throughput of a backbone WMN in a realistic outdoor environment.

Findings

The paper includes a thorough examination of benefits and crucial implementation issues concerning the adoption multiple antennas on mesh routers.

Originality/value

The paper investigates the relationship between the antenna system and the adopted channel coding technique, to determine the set‐up that may offer the best compromise between performance and complexity.

Citation

Babich, F., Comisso, M. and Manià, L. (2009), "Performance comparison of advanced antenna systems for wireless mesh routers in an outdoor environment", International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 249-271. https://doi.org/10.1108/17427370910991848