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Wireless sensor networks are built from nodes which have at least one sensor attached to them. To increase robustness and capacity, a signal from one node can be routed through many different nodes before it reaches its destination node (i.e. a base station). A smart antenna with a steerable beam has the potential, compared to a monopole, to increase the signal‐to‐noise ratio between nodes and hence provide more reliable communication paths. In this study, the data routing and link performance of a rhombus‐shaped mesh network using four IEEE 802.15.4 compliant MICAz sensor nodes (motes) is assessed using both monopole and smart antennas. Both reflectionless and multipath‐rich environments are used. It is shown that the electronically steerable parasitic array smart antenna offers a superior performance to a monopole antenna in both environments, while still consuming a similar amount of input …