Assessment of the adaptive routing performance of a Wireless Sensor Network using smart antennas

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks are built from nodes which have at least one sensor attached to them. To increase robustness and capacity, a signal from one node can be routed through many different nodes before it reaches its destination node (i.e. a base station). A smart antenna with a steerable beam has the potential, compared to a monopole, to increase the signal-to-noise ratio between nodes and hence provide more reliable communication paths. In this study, the data routing and link performance of a rhombus-shaped mesh network using four IEEE 802.15.4 compliant MICAz sensor nodes (motes) is assessed using both monopole and smart antennas. Both reflectionless and multipath-rich environments are used. It is shown that the electronically steerable parasitic array smart antenna offers a superior performance to a monopole antenna in both environments, while still consuming a similar amount of input power.

ESPAR Antenna-Based WSN Node With DoA Estimation Capability

“…. , p 12 } consisting of discrete values of radiation patterns are obtained. Those values are stored into microcontroller's memory as an input for the second phase.…”

“…where the angle ϕ is the azimuth plane 0 12 max with the angular step precision ϕ, while Y ( 12 max )} are output power values measured at the antenna output port for all the available radiation patterns and stored during the DoA estimation phase. Therefore, the estimated direction of arrival angleφ corresponds to the largest value of (ϕ) [33].…”

“…DoA estimation methods, which could be applied within WSN nodes, may rely on WSN node radiation pattern diversity that in its simplest form can be obtained by switching antennas' active or passive elements using inexpensive PIN or varactor diodes [10], [12], [25]. This approach allows one to integrate a switched-beam antenna with a WSN node [10], [12] so that the required beam direction can be set by a microcontroller. In consequence, such WSN nodes can increase their capabilities, both in reflectionless and multipath-rich environments.…”

Review of Research Techniques to Improve System Performance of Smart Antenna

“…Cikovskis [23] Smart antenna routing Better cancellation of the interferences Hung et al [24] Smart antenna routing Better throughput and optimization of power consumption Loh et al [25] Smart antenna routing High throughput and performance Babu et al [26] Smart antenna routing Enhanced performance compared to uni-directional antenna that the algorithm with smart antenna gives better power consumption and throughput.…”

“…In Loh et al [25] have given the concept of performance assessment of the adaptive routing in WSN by using smart antenna. The smart antenna in this performs the significant role in performance enhancement and power optimization.…”