Smart Antennas for Wireless Communication
Systems and Networks
This presentation reviews antenna technology along with the
associated signal processing algorithms for use in wireless communications
systems. Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest on improving
system capacity and
increasing coverage area in wireless communications using smart antennas. Smart
antenna technology is being considered for mobile platforms such as automobiles,
cellular phones (mobile unit), and laptops. The results presented here are part
of a larger project that considers this antenna system in the context of
reconfigurable broadband (high-speed) networks. Although the design of such a
system entails several other tasks (as the design of network protocols, feed
network, and physical layer communications algorithms), this presentation
concentrates on the antenna design and on the development of an efficient
adaptive algorithm for beamforming. The objective is to design an adaptive
antenna that ideally directs the maximum radiation of the pattern toward the
signal-of-interest (SOI) and ideally places nulls toward the
signal-not-of-interest (SNOI). The impact of a smart antenna system design on
network throughput and communication system BER is also examined. Mutual
coupling, which usually has a deleterious impact on the performance of a smart
antenna system, can be accounted and improved performance can be achieved.
