Performance Evaluation of Densely Deployed WLANs using Directional and Omni-Directional Antennas

Abstract

It has been more than a decade since the Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 standard family has become commercialized. Inexpensive WLAN access points have found their ways in almost every household and enterprise and WLAN devices are embedded in the chips of laptops, tablets, mobile phones, printers, and many other household and commercial appliances. In recent years, there has been a tremendous growth in the deployment of IEEE 802.11-based WLANs under the brand name Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). This growth is as a result of low-cost, international standard (e.g. 802.11a, b, g, n, and ac) flexibility and mobility offered by the technology. However, WLANs are deployed on a non-planning basis, not like public cellular phone networks. In WLAN, nodes commonly use omnidirectional antennas to communicate with access point. Omni-directional antennas may not be efficient due to interface caused by the transmission of packets in all the directions. Many researchers have evaluated the performance of Dense Wireless Local Area Network (a saturated network). There is need to evaluate the performance of densely deployed wireless networks (an area where high number of WLANs are deployed). This research paper has evaluated the performance of densely deployed WLANs using directional and omnidirectional antennas. Optimized Network Engineering Tool (OPNET) Modeler 17.1 has used to simulate directional and omnidirectional antennas.