MobiSteer: using steerable beam directional antenna for vehicular network access

In this work, we investigate the use of directional antennas and beam steering techniques to improve performance of 802.11 links in the context of communication between a moving vehicle and roadside APs. To this end, we develop a framework called MobiSteer that provides practical approaches to perform beam steering. MobiSteer can operate in two modes ? cached mode ? where it uses prior radio survey data collected during "idle" drives, and online mode, where it uses probing. The goal is to select the best AP and beam combination at each point along the drive given the available information, so that the throughput can be maximized. For the cached mode, an optimal algorithm for AP and beam selection is developed that factors in all overheads. We provide extensive experimental results using a commercially available eight element phased-array antenna. In the experiments, we use controlled scenarios with our own APs, in two different multipath environments, as well as in situ scen...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: MOBISYS
• Authors: Vishnu Navda, Anand Prabhu Subramanian, Kannan Dhanasekaran, Andreas Timm-Giel, Samir R. Das
• Keywords: Beam Steering Techniques, Connectivity Duration, Equivalent Omni-directional Antenna, MOBISYS 2007, Wireless Networks