On designing sensor networks with smart antennas

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) is an active research area. The recent advances in the fields of antennae and transmission lets consider massive improvements in the energy and communication management of WSN. However, the new WSN architectures have to evolve to take it into account. This paper presents an extension of the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol to take benefits of smart antennas technology. NS-2 simulations show the feasibility and the benefits of such architecture.