Smart antenna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Smart antennas (also known as adaptive array antennas, multiple antennas and
recently MIMO) are antenna arrays with smart signal processing algorithms used to
identify spatial signal signature such as the direction of arrival (DOA) of the signal, and
use it to calculatebeamforming vectors, to track and locate the antenna beam on the
mobile/target. The antenna could optionally be any sensor.

Smart antenna techniques are used notably in acoustic signal processing, track and
scan RADAR, radio astronomy and radio telescopes, and mostly in cellular
systems like W-CDMA and UMTS.

Smart antennas have two main functions: DOA estimation and Beamforming.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation

• 2 Beamforming
• 3 Types of smart antennas
• 4 Limited Choice of EIA/CEA-909A Smart Antennas in the
Marketplace
• 5 Extension of smart antennas
• 6 References

• 7 See also

[edit]Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation

The smart antenna system estimates the direction of arrival of the signal, using
techniques such as MUSIC (Multiple Signal Classification),estimation of signal
parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) algorithms, Matrix
Pencil method or one of their derivatives. They involve finding a spatial spectrum of the
antenna/sensor array, and calculating the DOA from the peaks of this spectrum. These
calculations are computationally intensive.

Matrix Pencil is very efficient in case of real time systems, and under the correlated
sources.
[edit]Beamforming

Beamforming is the method used to create the radiation pattern of the antenna array by
adding constructively the phases of the signals in the direction of the targets/mobiles
desired, and nulling the pattern of the targets/mobiles that are undesired/interfering
targets. This can be done with a simple FIR tapped delay line filter. The weights of the
FIR filter may also be changed adaptively, and used to provide optimal beamforming, in
the sense that it reduces the MMSE between the desired and actual beampattern
formed. Typical algorithms are the steepest descent, and LMS algorithms [4].

[edit]Types of smart antennas

Two of the main types of smart antennas include switched beam smart antennas
and adaptive array smart antennas. Switched beam systems have several available
fixed beam patterns. A decision is made as to which beam to access, at any given point
in time, based upon the requirements of the system. Adaptive arrays allow the antenna
to steer the beam to any direction of interest while simultaneously nulling interfering
signals [3]. Beamdirection can be estimated using the so-called direction-of-arrival
(DOA) estimation methods [6].

In 2008, the United States NTIA began a major effort to assist consumers in the
purchase of digital television converter boxes.[1] Through this effort, many people have
been exposed to the concept of smart antennas for the first time. In the context of
consumer electronics, a "smart antenna" is one that conforms to the EIA/CEA-
909 Standard Interface.

[edit]Limited
Choice of EIA/CEA-909A Smart Antennas in
the Marketplace
Prior to the final transition to ATSC Digital television in the United States on June 11,
2009, two smart antenna models were brought to market:

 RCA ANT2000 -- no longer available from retailers

 DTA-5000 -- sometimes associated with the Sylvania brand name; no longer
available from retailers

And two models are causing consumer confusion:

  Although the Apex SM550 is capable of connecting to a CEA-909 port for the
purpose of drawing electrical power, it is not a true smart antenna.[2]
 The unfortunately-named Channel Master 3000A SMARTenna is a
conventional antenna, not a smart antenna.[3]

[edit]Extension of smart antennas

Smart antenna systems are also a defining characteristic of MIMO systems, such as
the IEEE 802.11n standard. Conventionally, a smart antenna is a unit of a wireless
communication system and performs spatial signal processing with multiple antennas.
Multiple antennas can be used at either the transmitter or receiver. Recently, the
technology has been extended to use the multiple antennas at both the transmitter and
receiver; such a system is called a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. As
extended Smart Antenna technology, MIMO supports spatial information processing, in
the sense that conventional research on Smart Antennas has focused on how to
provide a beamforming advantage by the use of spatial signal processing in wireless
channels. Spatial information processing includes spatial information coding such as
Spatial multiplexing and Diversity Coding, as well as beamforming.

DEFINITION -
A smart antenna is a digital wireless communications antenna system that takes advantage
of diversity effect at the source (transmitter), the destination (receiver), or both. Diversity
effect involves the transmission and/or reception of multiple radio frequency (RF) waves to
increase data speed and reduce the error rate.
In conventional wireless communications, a single antenna is used at the source, and another
single antenna is used at the destination. This is calledSISO (single input, single output). Such
systems are vulnerable to problems caused by multipath effects. When an electromagnetic field
(EM field) is met with obstructions such as hills, canyons, buildings, and utility wires, the
wavefronts are scattered, and thus they take many paths to reach the destination. The late
arrival of scattered portions of the signal causes problems such as fading, cut-out (cliff effect),
and intermittent reception (picket fencing). In a digital communications system like the Internet,
it can cause a reduction in data speed and an increase in the number of errors. The use of
smart antennas can reduce or eliminate the trouble caused by multipath wave propagation.
Smart antennas fall into three major categories: SIMO (single input, multiple
output), MISO (multiple input, single output), and MIMO (multiple input, multiple output). In
SIMO technology, one antenna is used at the source, and two or more antennas are used at the
destination. In MISO technology, two or more antennas are used at the source, and one
antenna is used at the destination. In MIMO technology, multiple antennas are employed at both
the source and the destination. MIMO has attracted the most attention recently because it can
not only eliminate the adverse effects of multipath propagation, but in some cases

Smart antennas
Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, ALDO CUGNINI

The analog cutoff is now less than one year away, and with that change will come new
reception issues for terrestrial broadcast viewers. Although the FCC has sought to replicate
analog service in its digital channel allocation plan, most broadcasters will have a digital channel
assignment different from their analog one. Inherently, this means that the RF field conditions at
the viewer's location will be considerably different from those of the analog service. Smart
antennas offer a convenient way to minimize the impact on the viewer.

Click on image to enlarge.

Because terrestrial television receivers must potentially receive signals from various locations, a
fixed antenna cannot provide optimum reception across the available channels. In addition,
community antennas using the same transmitting site may cause receivers to experience
different multipath reception conditions across different channels. While indoor antenna re-
aiming may not affect an analog viewer — or the viewer simply tolerated a lower SNR on some
channels — re-aiming an antenna for optimum digital service could be quite burdensome.

Electronically steerable smart antennas that automatically optimize the preferred signal direction
for each particular broadcast emission were developed years ago for military applications and
are increasingly being used in cellular telephone base stations. This optimization can take into
account various signal quality factors, such as signal strength, multipath energy and BER.

DIGITAL SIGNAL RECEPTION VARIES WIDELY

Terrestrial television reception is subject to many transmission path impairments, including
multipath interference, where delayed echos of the transmitted signal can arrive at the antenna
because of reflections off large objects in the receiving space. Moderate to severe multipath can
lead to an increase in BER, which could compromise video and audio or, in the worst case,
result in no reception at all.

While this situation can often be remedied by physically re-aiming the receiving antenna, this
adjustment may not be ideal for all received stations because of their different transmission
powers, frequencies and locations.
Figure 1. Simple smart antenna system, with selectable element phase and overall gain
Click on image to enlarge.
These difficulties are compounded because of the cliff effect,wherein the BER increases
catastrophically below a certain C/N ratio or D/U interference ratio. As such, antenna adjustment
can be problematic under many reception conditions. The situation is equally inconvenient with
outdoor antennas (requiring a rotator) or indoor ones (requiring frequent trips to the television).

It is now practical to use this same technology for consumer digital television reception. By
providing an automatic mechanism to adjust the antenna, the direction and gain (amplification)
of the antenna can be electronically changed, with no need for user intervention or physical
adjustment of the antenna. This type of antenna functions by changing the relative gain and
phase (delay) of the internal elements. While offering a high degree of optimization for both
signal capture and interference rejection, this kind of adaptive antenna is somewhat complex
and hence expensive to implement.

PRACTICAL SMART ANTENNAS

An alternate type of smart antenna is the so-called switched beam antenna system. In this
system, multiple fixed elements within the antenna are selectively used so that a primary
receiving direction is favored. At the same time, strong sources of multipath can be negated. An
optimization algorithm can perform a trade-off between the two factors. The user simply plugs
the antenna in to a suitably equipped DTV receiver or converter box, and the receiver
automatically adjusts the antenna for optimal reception of each DTV station.

One example of such a system is shown schematically in Figure 1. The optimization algorithm is
typically executed by the CPU in the receiving device and is done once during initial setup. In
addition to selecting different azimuth directions, units can operate with different levels of RF
amplification. This is useful in areas of high signal strength to avoid overload of the receiver
front end, which could otherwise result in high intermodulation distortion.

Selecting an antenna direction and gain setting for optimum signal reception involves assessing
the signal quality over the operating extent of the antenna. Various parameters of the received
signal can be evaluated and weighed, including signal strength, mean squared error of the
channel equalizer, spectral flatness and unwanted interference.

Depending on the system architecture, this optimization process can be tightly integrated with
the demodulator or implemented separately. The combination of direction and gain can also be
used in a more sophisticated algorithm that anticipates third-order intermodulation interference
from strong UHF taboo channels, or from the n ± 1, two-channel pairs where tuner RF selectivity
may be minimal.
A STANDARDIZED SMART ANTENNA INTERFACE
While a smart antenna can be an option to the consumer, it will only function if the appropriate
interface is available at the receiver. Such an interface has been developed and standardized
by the Consumer Electronics Association, and is known as CEA-909A, “Antenna Control
Interface.”

This standard describes how a compliant receiver can operate with any compliant antenna,
regardless of manufacturer. The standard also specifies the data format used, the connection
standards and other requirements.

Figure 2. A smart antenna can be a small, attractive and affordable solution.

The antenna configuration is neither specified nor implied, leaving specific design
considerations to the manufacturer. As such, an elaborate system can even be designed using
a full-blown antenna farm. The more practical design allows for the realization of an affordable,
attractive antenna with a small form factor, as seen in Figure 2.

The CEA R4-WG4 working group has also defined a control protocol that works over the
antenna coax, resulting in two options for the CEA-909A standard: one that uses a separate
connector for the control signal, and one that shares the RF signal connector/coax.
SMART ANTENNA DESCRIPTION

There are two basic types of smart antennas. As shown in Fig. 6.1, the first type is the
phased array or multibeam antenna, which consists of either a number of fixed beams
with one beam turned on towards the desired signal or a single beam (formed by
phase adjustment only) that is steered toward the desired signal. The other type is the
adaptive antenna array as shown in Fig. 6.2, which is an array of multiple antenna
elements, with the received signals weighted and combined to maximize the desired
signal to interference plus noise power ratio. This essentially puts a main beam in the
direction of the desired signal and nulls in the direction of the interference.

A smart antenna is therefore a phased or adaptive array that adjusts to the

environment. That is, for the adaptive array, the beam pattern changes as the desired
user and the interference move; and for the phased array the beam is steered or
different beams are selected as the desired user moves.

Nearly every company the WTEC panel visited is doing significant work in smart
antennas. Indeed, some companies placed strong emphasis on this research. In
particular, researchers at NEC and NTT stated that they felt that smart antenna
technology was the most important technology for fourth generation cellular systems.
Researchers at Filtronics and other companies agreed that smart antenna technology
was one of the key technologies for fourth generation systems. The reasons appear
below.

Fig. 6.1. Phased array.

Fig. 6.2. Adaptive array.
Introduction
A Smart Antenna is an antenna system which dynamically reacts to its environment
to provide better signals and frequency usage for wireless communications. There
are a variety of smart antennas which utilize different methods to provide
improvements in various wireless applications. This report aims to explain the main
types of smart antennas and there advantages and disadvantages.

Smart Antennas
Contrary to the name smart antennas consist of more than an antenna. A smart
antenna is a system involving multiple antenna elements and a signal processor
(Usually digital) to adjust the radiation and or elements of the antenna (IEC 2004).
Smart antennas usually use arrays of antennas linked to a control unit or digital
signal processor (Lehne et al. 1999, p. 4). Current efforts into smart antenna
development are for wireless digital networks, for use with mobile telephones and
computer networks. The smart antennas developed for mobile telephone networks
are focused on replacing standard base station antennas to communicate with
standard antenna mobile phones, however in the future mobile phone handsets
may also contain smart antennas.

Fig 1 Smart Antenna System

The theory behind smart antennas has been around for some time. The technique
of two parties ‘targeting’ each other with there transmissions being used in world
war II to prevent jamming and eavesdropping form third parties. However smart
antennas have recently become a viable option for large digital networks as
computer processors now have sufficient computational power to process wireless
signals in real time. (004p3)

Conveniently the emergence of powerful enough processors has also coincided with
the need by communications carriers to be able to use their frequency space more
efficiently. As the frequency space is limited and expensive to purchase carriers
needed a way to support more users within the same frequency space.

Smart antennas work on the premise that interferes (devices which are also
transmitting on the same frequency) are rarely in the same physical location as
another device. Smart antennas exploit this by targeting antenna gain (sensitivity)
in the direction individual devices (004p3). This means that signals from interferers
are not received or much weaker than the signal we are transmitting and receiving
with the desired device. Targeting devices also reduces the interference radiated to
other devices, this means that other devices can use the same frequency. Having
more than one set of devices using a frequency means that the capacity of the
frequency space is effectively increased. A smart antenna is similar in function to a
switch on a traditional wired computer network, sending signals only to the
intended recipients.

Fig 2 Device with interfering device

There are several advantages and disadvantages to the use of smart antennas,
which have been expanded upon below.

Advantages
Increased number of users

Due to the targeted nature of smart antennas frequencies can be reused allowing
an increased number of users. More users on the same frequency space means that
the network provider has lower operating costs in terms of purchasing frequency
space.(Lehne et al. 1999, p. 5),(SYMENA 2004, p. 5)
Increased Range

As the smart antenna focuses gain on the communicating device, the range of
operation increases. This allows the area serviced by a smart antenna to increase.
This can provide a cost saving to network providers as they will not require as many
antennas/base stations to provide coverage.(Lehne et al. 1999, p. 5)

Geographic Information

As smart antennas use ‘targeted’ signals the direction in which the antenna is
transmitting and the gain required to communicate with a device can be used to
determine the location of a device relatively accurately. This allows network
providers to offer new services to devices. Some services include, guiding
emergency services to your location, location based games and locality
information. (Lehne et al. 1999, p. 5)

Security

Smart antennas naturally provide increased security, as the signals are not radiated
in all directions as in a traditional omni-directional antenna. This means that if
someone wished to intercept transmissions they would need to be at the same
location or between the two communicating devices.(Gadh et al. 2003)

Reduced Interference

Interference which is usually caused by transmissions which radiate in all directions

are less likely to occur due to the directionality introduced by the smart antenna.
This aids both the ability to reuse frequencies and achieve greater range.

Increased bandwidth

The bandwidth available increases form the reuse of frequencies and also in
adaptive arrays as they can utilize the many paths which a signal may follow to
reach a device.

Easily integrated

Smart antennas are not a new protocol or standard so the antennas can be easily
implemented with existing non smart antennas and devices.

Disadvantages
Complex

A disadvantage of smart antennas is that they are far more complicated than
traditional antennas. This means that faults or problems may be harder to diagnose
and more likely to occur.(Lehne et al. 1999, p. 5)

More Expensive

As smart antennas are extremely complex, utilizing the latest in processing

technology they are far more expensive than traditional antennas. However this
cost must be weighed against the cost of frequency space.

Larger Size

Due to the antenna arrays which are utilized by smart antenna systems, they are
much larger in size than traditional systems. This can be a problem in a social
context as antennas can be seen as ugly or unsightly.(Lehne et al. 1999, p. 6)

Location

The location of smart antennas needs to be considered for optimal operation. Due
to the directional beam that ‘swings’ from a smart antenna locations which are
optimal for a traditional antenna are not for a smart antenna. For example in a road
context, smart antennas are better situated away from the road, unlike normal
antennas which are best situated along the road.(Lehne et al. 1999, p. 6)
Types of Smart Antennas
There are three main types of smart antenna. They can be seen as evolutional
types with each type being more complex and or smart then its predecessor.

Normal
A normal antenna is not a smart antenna and simply attempts to radiate as much
signal as possible uniformly around the antenna element.

Fig 3 Normal antenna radiation pattern

Switched Lobe
A switched lobe antenna has an array of directional antenna elements all covering
different areas. The element in the direction of the device that communication is to
take place is then used to transmit and receive. If a device moves out of the beam
of an element the antenna must switch to transmit and receive on an element that
does reach the device. Switched lobe antennas integrate well with existing normal
antennas. They are also less complex than the other smart antennas meaning they
may be more cheaply implemented. This may be a good antenna to use in an older
network where the infrastructure will not remain in use for long enough to justify
the outlay on more advanced antennas.

Fig 4 Switched lobe antenna radiation pattern

A switched lobe antenna provides some improvement over a normal antenna

Dynamically Phased Array
Dynamically phased array antennas form a beam to a device digitally. The array
forms a beam by activating certain omnidirectional elements in the array which
have a multiplying effect to form a beam. This beam can then be ‘steered’ or
pointed in the direction of a device by phasing the transmission of the signal in the
elements and adjusting the gain on each antenna element. A dynamically phased
array steers the created beam at the desired device. As the beams are formed
digitally the same array of elements can target beams at multiple devices on
multiple frequencies. Assuming two beams do not ‘illuminate’ the two devices they
can use the same transmission frequency.

Fig 5 Dynamically phased array antenna radiation pattern

Digital beam forming requires a great deal of processing power, and so have only
recently become a feasible technique.(Howard 2003, p. 7)
Fig 6 Digitally formed beam
Adaptive Array
An adaptive array is similar to a dynamically phased array however it performs
more it is more ‘intelligent’ taking into account a greater number of factors. An
adaptive array adapts to its environment by taking into account other interfering
devices and multiple signal paths. Interfering devices can be ‘blocked’ by reducing
the signal received form the antenna elements in that direction and increasing it in
others. Multiple signal paths can be utilized by forming beams in the directions of
signal paths meaning a combined signal can be formed from multiple beams. This
provides a much better signal to noise ration giving clearer communication to a
device.

Fig 7 Adaptive array antenna radiation pattern

Another technique which is being developed using smart antennas on both

transmission devices is to use the multiple signal paths to transmit different data
and create multiple data streams on the same frequency. This allows a higher
bandwidth for communication between the two devices. This technology is called
multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) and is being integrated into wireless LAN
systems. (Lingblom 2003, p. 5)(Temme 2004, p. 33)(Cox 2004, p. 12)
Fig 8 MIMO radiation pattern

Conclusion
Smart antennas vastly improve the efficiency of wireless transmission and are likely
to become the standard in use for connections between wireless devices. As the
technology becomes cheaper it is likely that all devices will utilise smart antennas.
This transition could be compared to the use of hubs in wired computer networks
and there replacement with switching technology as the costs of implementation
reduced.