On the Connectivity of Wireless Networks with Multiple Directional Antennas

The network connectivity is one of important measures of the performance of wireless networks. However, most of current studies on the network connectivity only consider either an SOMN network, where each node is mounted with a single omni-directional antenna, or an SDA network, where each node is mounted with a single directional antenna. Using multiple directional antennas instead of a single directional antenna can potentially improve the network performance. In this paper, we investigate the connectivity of a novel network, in terms of an MDA network, where each node is mounted with multiple directional antennas. We found that MDA networks have much stronger network connectivity than other existing networks (such as SOMN and SDA networks), and its connectivity degree heavily depends on the number of antennas, the beamwidth of each antenna and the path loss factor. The enhancement mainly owes to the usage of multiple antennas and the longer transmission range of directional antennas.