Design of smart antenna testbed prototype

• Published in: 6th International SYmposium on Antennas, Propagation and EM Theory, 2003. Proceedings. 2003 pp. 299 - 302
• Main Authors: Kawitkar, R.S., Shevgaonkar, R.K.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2003
• Subjects: Adaptive arrays; Adaptive systems; Antenna arrays; Base stations; Costs; Mobile antennas; Mobile communication; Personal communication networks; Prototypes; System testing
• ISBN: 9780780378315; 0780378318
• DOI: 10.1109/ISAPE.2003.1276687

The use of wireless, mobile, a personal communications service is expanding rapidly. Market projections indicate that within ten years approximately 50% of the total teletraffic (including voice, FAX and multimedia data) is handled via mobile communication networks. Adaptive or "smart" antenna arrays can further increase channel capacity through spatial division. Adaptive antennas an also track mobile users, improving both signal range and quality. For these reasons, smart antenna systems have attracted widespread interest in the telecommunications industry for applications to third generation wireless systems. The problems in 3G systems can be effectively tackled by using smart antennas. This paper aims to design and develop an advanced antennas testbed to serve as a common reference for testing adaptive antenna arrays and signal combining algorithms, as well as complete systems. The goal of this paper is to develop low complexity smart antenna structures for 3G systems. The emphasis is laid on ease of implementation in a multichannel/multi-user environment. A smart antenna test bed is developed, and various state-of-the-art DSP structures and algorithms are investigated. Some of the benefits that can be achieved by using SAS (smart antenna system) include lower mobile terminal power consumption, range extension, ISI reduction, higher data rate support, and ease of integration into the existing base station system. In terms of economic benefits, adaptive antenna systems employed at base station, though increases the per base station cost, can increase coverage area of each cell site, thereby reducing the total system cost dramatically - often by more than 50% without compromising the system performance. The testbed can be employed to illustrate enhancement of system capacity and service quality in wireless communications applications.