This thesis explores the medium access control (MAC) layer and network layer issues associated with spatial reusability in directional ad-hoc networks. Specifically, the problems in using a proactive routing protocol (OLSR in this case), on top of a directional MAC and physical layer, are investigated. The key challenge in such a network is of providing stability to a soft state routing protocol while keeping the control overhead to acceptable limits. A cross layer OLSR scheme with channel-aware ‘Hello’ broadcast is also implemented. We designed our own custom network simulator in MATLAB with OLSR serving as the network layer, along with the single beam and multi beam MAC layers. This thesis, details our simulator and protocol stack which we implemented from scratch. Finally, we demonstrate that proactive routing protocol is viable to be used in directional networks by employing cross layer protocol design. Our results also demonstrate the benefits of using directional MAC protocols which support multiple beam smart antenna (MBSA) over single beam MAC.
