Exploring network-level performances of wireless nanonetworks utilizing gains of different types of nano-antennas with different materials

Wireless nanonetworks are not a simple extension of traditional communication networks at the nano-scale. Owing to being a completely new communication paradigm, existing research in this field is still at an embryonic stage. Furthermore, most of the existing studies focus on performance enhancement of nanonetworks via designing new channel models and routing protocols. However, the impacts of different types of nano-antennas on the network-level performances of the wireless nanonetworks remain still unexplored in the literature. Therefore, in this paper, we explore the impacts of different well-known types of antennas such as patch, dipole, and loop nano-antennas on the network-level performances of wireless nanonetworks. We also investigate the performances of nanonetworks for different types of traditional materials (e.g., copper) and for nanomaterials (e.g., carbon nanotubes and graphene). We perform rigorous simulation using our customized ns-2 simulation to evaluate the network-level performances of nanonetworks exploiting different types of nano-antennas using different materials. Our evaluation reveals a number of novel findings pertinent to finding an efficient nano-antenna from its several alternatives for enhancing network-level performances of nanonetworks. Our evaluation demonstrates that a dipole nano-antenna using copper material exhibits around 51% better throughput and about 33% better end-to-end delay compared to other alternatives for large-size nanonetworks. Furthermore, our results are expected to exhibit high impacts on the future design of wireless nanonetworks through facilitating the process of finding the suitable type of nano-antenna and suitable material for the nano-antennas.