Investigation of directional antennas effect on energy efficiency and reliability of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard in outdoor wireless sensor networks

Over the past few years, wireless sensor network (WSN) systems have been expanded rapidly due to the decreasing size and cost of sensor devices as well as the advances in wireless communication technologies. In this paper the impact of directional antennas on energy efficiency and reliability of WSN systems is investigated. The WSN performance using directional antennas is compared to the reference case of omnidirectional antennas in an outdoor environment through measurements at 2.45 GHz. Measurement results are used to evaluate sensor node performance in terms of node lifetime, energy efficiency and packet error rate (PER). Moreover simulation results using the Castalia simulator are provided.

I. Introduction

Recently, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) receive the interest of researchers due to the increasing number of emerging application areas for WSNs, including healthcare, automotive, smart home and more, and the development of low-cost sensors and advanced communication technologies. Wireless connectivity is usually required in WSN systems for communication purposes, thus antennas are a crucial component of a sensor based system.