Range and Throughput Enhancement of Wireless Local Area Networks Using Smart Sectorised Antennas

Abstract

Abstract-At present, wireless local area networks (WLANs) such as HiperLAN2 and 802.11a are being developed and deployed around the world. In this letter, the use of sectorized antennas is considered as a means to improve the physical layer performance of WLANs. Results demonstrate that throughput and range can be enhanced and/or the transmit power can be reduced. However, these benefits are achieved with a small increase in multiple access protocol overhead. Simulations are performed using measured wideband channels in the 5-GHz band. In cases where the channel exhibits strong Rician characteristics, gains as high as 13 dB are demonstrated. These benefits substantially outweigh the associated medium access control overhead.Index Terms-HIPERLAN2, IEEE 802.11, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), smart antennas, wireless local area networks (WLANs).

Practical multiple‐antenna solutions for enhancing adaptive OFDM performance in mm‐wave WPANs

“…The benefits of such an approach are twofold, since a sectorized approach will reduce the delay spread, allowing a shorter cyclic prefix to be used, and will typically provide higher received power due to the increased antenna gains with respect to an omni-directional antenna such as an ideal monopole. While for the approach in [5], it was recommended only to use sectorized antennas at the AP, in this paper we consider the use of sectorized antennas at both ends. The reasons for this decision are as follows.…”

“…The reasons for this decision are as follows. First, while Doufexi et al [5] considered the 5 GHz band, meaning that the antenna dimensions and spacings would be on the order of centimetres, the GLIMMR project is considering the 60 GHz band, and hence the antenna dimensions and spacings for this project are on the order of millimetres. This makes the implementation of antenna arrays possible even for physically small terminals.…”

System level performance evaluation of MIMO and SISO OFDM-based WLANs

“…Nevertheless, only limited work can be found on system level performance evaluation of WLANs enhanced through MIMO techniques [5,6].…”

Antenna Array Designs for OFDM WLAN Indoor Transmission

“…The benefit of using sectorization on a WLAN has studied previously in [1]. However, [1] assumed the beams of the antenna are utilized for selection diversity.…”

“…However, [1] assumed the beams of the antenna are utilized for selection diversity. While this is a pragmatic technique, it does not realize the maximum benefit of a sectorized array in a multi-user scenario.…”