Unlike most of the previous work for smart antennas that covered each area individually (antenna-array design, signal processing and communications algorithms and network throughput), this paper may be considered as a review of comprehensive effort on smart antennas that examines and integrates antenna array design, the development of signal processing algorithms (for angle of arrival estimation and adaptive beamforming), strategies for combating fading, and the impact on the network throughput. In particular, this study considers problems dealing with the impact of the antenna design on the network throughput. In addition, fading channels and tradeoffs between diversity combining and adaptive beamforming are examined as well as channel coding to improve the system performance.