Quality of service aware topology control for wireless ad hoc networks using smart antennas.

Wireless ad hoc networks can suffer from capacity and scalability problems, especially when omni-directional antennas are used. Meeting the required Quality of Service (QoS) of the communications becomes a difficult task in such networks. To help alleviate these traditional problems of wireless ad hoc networks, this thesis presents the design and analysis of low level protocols and algorithms that intelligently use adaptive beamforming smart antennas to facilitate the provision of communications meeting QoS constraints of applications. The network model for which the protocols and algorithms in this thesis are designed is a cooperative, community wireless ad hoc network where nodes are in general fixed and there is no centrally owned infrastructure. This is an extension to the Suburban Ad-Hoc Network (SAHN). Though SAHN is a quasi-static network, much of the work of this thesis can be extended to include mobility. In this thesis medium access control, routing and topology control protocols and algorithms that are aware of QoS requirements of communications have been developed, simulated and evaluated. These protocols and algorithms take advantage of special characteristics of smart antennas. As a complete system, the new algorithms and protocols within a smart antenna equipped wireless ad hoc network, offers significant performance gains over traditional wireless networks.