Antenna selection in a SIMO architecture for HF radio links

• Published in: Radio science Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 223 - 230
• Main Authors: Erhel, Yvon, Lemur, Dominique, Oger, Martial, Le Masson, Jérôme
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2016
• Subjects: Antenna arrays; Antennas; Architecture; Channels; collocated antennas; Design standards; Dipoles; Electrical engineering; Impulse response; ionospheric channel; Links; Loop antennas; Modems; outage capacity; Outages; Radio; SIMO architecture
• ISSN: 0048-6604; 1944-799X
• DOI: 10.1002/2015RS005850

This work takes place in the global design of a SIMO architecture (single input multiple output) for transhorizon radio links, aiming at a significant increase in the data rate when compared with standard modems based in general on a SISO scheme (single input single output). The project is subject to available space constraints at the receive end, involving mobile stations or onboard implementation. We consider solutions that appear as extensions of the compact and heterogeneous antenna array that we proposed previously: collocated antennas of different types are set up with the same phase center and present diversity in their polarization sensitivities to make array processing effective. Given the number NC of receive channels, we address the problem of selecting the most effective antennas in a set of NA possible candidates including monopoles, dipoles, loop antennas with various geometries, and orientations. The criterion to be maximized is the SIMO outage capacity, a quantity based on the statistical distribution of the SIMO Shannon capacity estimated for a large number of ionospheric channel realizations, each of them being quantified by its channel impulse response including the receive antenna directional responses. Results are presented in the context of a 1 × 2 SIMO structure: the identification of the two most effective antennas in a set of NA = 15 sensors indicates that the optimal structures involve two orthogonal horizontal dipoles or two vertical orthogonal loop antennas. In these conditions, the outage capacity reaches up to 2.23 bps/Hz, a value that significantly exceeds the performances of standard modems. Key Points Design of a SIMO architecture (single input multiple output) for transhorizon radio links Selection of the most effective receive antennas in a set of NA possible candidates Outage capacity reaching a value of 2.23 bps/Hz significantly superior to standard performances