Topology Maps for 3D Millimeter Wave Sensor Networks with Directional Antennas

Millimeter wave communication shows promise in realizing next generation wireless sensor networks for bandwidth demanding applications. Despite its support of multi Gbps data rates, MmWaves requires unobstructed line-of-sight and suffers from heavy path losses. Overcoming these in complex 3D environments requires sectored antenna arrays with narrow beam widths and adaptive beamforming. Therefore, network topology maps would be significant than ever in millimeter wave sensor networks. Traditional topology mapping algorithms rely on omnidirectional transmission and reception and are thus not tailored to such networks. A novel topology mapping algorithm, Millimeter Wave Topology Map (MmTM) is proposed for 3D deployments, which take advantage of the directional information available from beamforming antennas as well as their beam steering capability. An autonomous robot traverses the network recording the packet reception from different nodes along with the receiving antenna sector ID that delivers the packet with highest signal quality. The techniques used in standard IEEE 802.11ad protocol are used for the optimum sector selection and collision avoidance. MmTM is evaluated using two realistic sensor network environments and compared with prominent localization approaches based on received signal strength and hop count. The results show that proposed algorithm has a less than 0.7m distance error and more than 50% of nodes are located in the correct direction, which is 7m and 35% improvement in distance error and sector displacement matrices compared to other algorithms.