On the use of directional antennas for sensor networks

Directional antennas have been shown to have the potential to provide dramatic increases in throughput and reduction in delay, while simultaneously requiring lower transmit power and increasing LPI/LPD and A/J qualities. Among military systems, sensor systems have a strong need for such characteristics due to their inability to move, length of deployment time, as well as a need for stealth operation. In this paper we describe and analyze significant issues for contention-based MACs for directional antennas which are of particular interest to sensor systems. We also provide a MAC design that overcomes these difficulties.