This paper investigates the performance of a MANET where nodes are
equipped with fully adaptive smart antennas. The physical antenna
system is a uniform circular array and the signal processing unit,
employing LMS algorithm, uses a reference signal to update the
antenna weights. A comparison between a MAC protocol called
Selective CSMA with Cooperative Nulling (SCSMA/CN) and 802.11 DCF
shows that higher throughput can be obtained exploiting efficient
SDMA schemes. The objective of this paper is to extend, via
simulations, the considerations on interferer suppression
capabilities of smart antennas in more severe channel conditions.
So, the link model takes into account path loss, cochannel
interference and multipath fading, using a modified Jakes model.
Simulation results show the performance degradation due to
increase of angular spread in multipath channels due to
difficulties of smart antennas in placing nulls towards undesired
directions. Moreover, this paper puts into evidence the effects of
fading on network throughput in mobility scenario.
