Performance evaluation of a multisector antenna based access point network architecture

Abstract

A multisector antenna based access point (AP) network architecture with omni-directional mobile nodes (MNs) is proposed. We investigate the effect of hidden nodes and power control on the system performance, and compare the performance of the proposed network architecture with that of an omni-directional AP/MNs network architecture in terms of throughput, delay, probability of collision, and power consumption per throughput. The data throughput in the multisector antenna based AP network architecture with power control (PC) is approximately 5.65 and 6.59 times higher than for the conventional omni-directional AP network architecture with PC and without PC, respectively, at an aggregate offered load of 1.0 (2.0 Mbps). The peak data throughput of the proposed network architecture with PC is approximately 1.9 (3.8 Mbps) for an aggregate offered load of about 2.1 (4.2 Mbps). Furthermore, the power consumption of MNs per throughput in the proposed network architecture with PC is only 1.02% and 2.25% of those of the omni-directional AP network architecture without PC and with PC, respectively, at an aggregate offered load of 1.0 (2.0 Mbps). The proposed network architecture with PC yields a significant improvement in system throughput and power saving in comparison with the conventional omni-directional AP/MNs network architecture.