Selection of Optimal Beam Forming Algorithm for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks have drawn considerable attentions of researchers for the last few years. Various applications of ad hoc networks have been reported in the literatures including disaster management, battle field, environmental management, healthcare, and smart grid. Ad hoc networks have some limitations namely short operating life, unreliability, scalability, delay, high interference, and scarce resources. In order to overcome these limitations, numerous researches have been carried out. Smart antenna integration is one of them. It has been shown in the literatures that smart antenna can improve network’s capacity, increase network lifetime, reduce delay, and improve scalability by directing antenna radiation pattern in a desired direction. But, producing a desired antenna radiation pattern is not a simple task for resource constraint ad hoc networks. A careful selection of beam forming algorithm is required. In this paper we show that smart antenna system, consisting of circular microstrip antennas and arranged in a linear arrangement, is the most suitable choice for ad hoc network. We compare a number of smart antenna algorithms in this paper under different noisy conditions. We show that the Least Square Constant Modulus (LSCM) and Least Constant Modulus (LCM) algorithms outperform other algorithms in terms of directivity and minimized side lobes.