ISSN : 2230-7109(Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543(Print) IJECT Vol. 2, Issue 3, Sept.

2011

A Survey on Smart Antenna System

Savitri Katariya
Dept. of ECE, Mahakal Institute of Technology, Ujjain, India

Abstract To date, antennas have been the most neglected of all the
Smart Antenna system is the One of the most rapidly developing components in personal communications systems. Yet, the
areas of communications. This is the survey of paper which manner in which radio frequency energy is distributed into
shows principle and working of smart antennas and the and collected from space has a profound influence upon
elegance of their applications in various fields such a 4G the efficient use of spectrum, the cost of establishing new
telephony system, best suitability of multi carrier modulations personal communications networks and the service quality
such as OFDMA etc. The use of smart antennas in mobile provided by those networks. The commercial adoption of smart
communications that enhances the capabilities of the mobile antenna techniques is a great promise to the solution of the
and cellular system such a faster bit rate, multi use interference, aforementioned wireless communications’ impairments.
space division multiplexing (SDMA), increase in range, Multi
path Mitigation, and reduction of errors due to multi path fading B. FUNCTIONS OF SMART ANTENNA [1]
and with one great advantage that is a very high security. The
signal that is been transmitted by a smart antenna cannot • Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation
tracked or received any other antenna thus ensuring a very • Beam forming
high security of the data transmitted. This paper also shows
required algorithms that are need for the beam forming in the 1. Direction of arrival estimation
antenna patters. The smart antenna estimates the direction of arrival of the
signal, using techniques such as Multiple Signal Classification,
Keywords estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance
Smart antenna, DOA, Beam forming, switched beam, adaptive techniques (ESPRIT) algorithms, Matrix Pencil method or one
array. of their derivatives. They involve finding a spatial spectrum of
the antenna/sensor array, and calculating the DOA from the
I. Introduction peaks of this spectrum. These calculations are computationally
A smart antenna is an array of antenna elements connected intensive. Matrix Pencil is very efficient in case of real time
to a digital signal processor. Such a configuration dramatically systems, and under the correlated sources.
enhances the capacity of a wireless link through a combination
of diversity gain, array gain, and interference suppression. 2. Beam forming [3]
Increased capacity translates to higher data rates for a given Beam forming is the term used to describe the application
number of users or more users for a given data rate per user. of weights to the inputs of an array of antennas to focus the
Multipath paths of propagation are created by reflections and reception of the antenna array in a certain direction, called the
scattering. Also, interference signals such as that produced look direction or the main lobe. More importantly, other signals
by the microwave oven in the picture, are superimposed on of the same carrier frequency from other directions can be
the desired signals. Measurements suggest that each path rejected. These effects are all achieved electronically and no
is really a bundle or cluster of paths, resulting from surface physical movement of the receiving antennas is necessary. In
roughness or irregularities. The random gain of the bundle is addition, multiple beam formers focused in different directions
called Multipath fading [1]. can share a single antenna array one set of antennas can service
multiple calls of the same carrier. It is no coincidence that the
A. WHY NEED SMART ANTENNAS number of elements in the above diagram equals the number
Wireless communication systems, as opposed to their wire line of incoming signals. A beam former of L antenna elements
counterparts, pose some unique challenges [2]: is capable of accepting one signal and reliably rejecting L-1
• limited allocated spectrum results in a limit on capacity signals. A greater number of interfering signals will diminish
• radio propagation environment and the mobility of users the performance of the beam former. Beam forming presents
give rise to signal several advantages to antenna design .Firstly, space division
• fading and spreading in time, space and frequency multiple access (SDMA) is achieved since a beam former can
• limited battery life at the mobile device poses power steer its look direction towards a certain signal. Other signals
constraints from different directions can reuse the same carrier frequency.
In addition, cellular wireless communication systems have to Secondly, because the beam former is focused in a particular
cope with interference due to frequency reuse. Research efforts direction, the antenna sensitivity can be increased for a better
investigating effective technologies to mitigate such effects signal to noise ratio, especially when receiving weak signals.
have been going on for the past twenty five years, as wireless Thirdly, signal interference is reduced due to the rejection of
communications are experiencing rapid growth [2]. Among undesired signals. For the uplink case of transmitting from
these methods are multiple access schemes, channel coding the antenna array to a mobile telephone, system interference
and equalization and smart antenna employment. An antenna is reduced since the signal is only transmitted in the look
in a telecommunications system is the port through which radio direction. A digital beam former is one that operates in the
frequency (RF) energy is coupled from the transmitter to the digital domain. Traditionally, beam formers were implemented
outside world for transmission purposes, and in reverse, to in analog; the weights were determined and applied to the
the receiver from the outside world for reception purposes. antenna inputs via analog circuitry. With digital beam forming,

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IJECT Vol. 2, Issue 3, Sept. 2011 ISSN : 2230-7109(Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543(Print)

the antenna signals are individually translated from Radio communicate with the user.
Frequencies (RF) to Intermediate Frequencies (IF), digitized and
then down-converted to base-band I and Q components. A beam
forming algorithm implemented on one or more digital signal
processors then processes I and Q components to determine a
set of weights for the input signals. The input signals are then
multiplied by the weights and summed to output the signal of
interest (SOI).

2. Adaptive Arrays
The Adaptive array system is the “smarter” of the two
approaches. This system tracks the mobile user continuously
by steering the main beam towards the user and at the same
time forming nulls in the directions of the interfering signal. Like
switched beam systems, they also incorporate arrays. Typically,
the received signal from each of the spatially distributed
antenna elements is multiplied by a weight. The weights are
complex in nature and adjust the amplitude and phase. These
signals are combined to yield the array output. These complex
weights are computed by a complicated adaptive algorithm,
Fig. 1: which is pre-programmed into the digital signal-processing unit
One of the foremost advantages offered by the software radio that manages the signal radiated by the base station.
technology is flexibility. Because beam forming is implemented
in software, it is possible to investigate a wide range of beam
forming algorithms without the need to modify the system
hardware for every algorithm. Consequently, researchers can
focus their efforts on improving the performance of the beam
forming algorithms rather than on designing new hardware,
which can be a very expensive and time consuming process.
A complete description of the RLS algorithm can be found in
.This algorithm was chosen for its fast convergence rate and
ability to process the input signal before demodulation. While
the first reason is important especially when the environment
is changing rapidly, the later reason decreases the algorithm
dependency on a specific air interface.

C. TYPES OF SMART ANTENNA SYSTEMS Fig. 2 : Adaptive Antenna Array

There are basically two approaches to implement antennas
that dynamically change their antenna pattern to mitigate II. APPLICATIONS OF SMART ANTENNA
interference and multipath affects while increasing coverage A space-time processor (’smart ‘antenna’) is capable of forming
and range. They are transmit/receive beams towards the mobile of interest. At the
• Switched beam same time it is possible to place spatial nulls in the direction of
• Adaptive Arrays unwanted interferences. This capability can be used to improve
the performance of a mobile communication system
1. Switched beam
The Switched beam approach is simpler compared to the fully A. Increased antenna gain
adaptive approach. It provides a considerable increase in The ’smart’ antenna forms transmit and receive beams.
network capacity when compared to traditional Omni directional Therefore, the ’smart’ antenna has a higher gain than a
antenna systems or sector-based systems. In this approach, conventional Omni-directional antenna. The higher gain
an antenna array generates overlapping beams that cover the can be used to either increase the effective coverage, or to
surrounding area. When an incoming signal is detected, the increase the receiver sensitivity, which in turn can be exploited
base station determines the beam that is best aligned in the to reduce transmit power and electromagnetic radiation in the
signal-of-interest direction and then switches to that beam to network.

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B. Decreased inter-symbol-interference (ISI) or it can simply provide array gain or diversity gain to the
Multipath propagation in mobile radio environments leads to desired signals transmitted from conventional transmitters
ISI. Using transmit and receive beams that are directed towards and suppress the interference. No manual placement of
the mobile of interest reduces the amount of Multipath and antennas is required. The smart antenna electronically adapts
ISI. to the environment by looking for pilot tones or beacons or by
recovering certain characteristics (such as a known alphabet
C. Decreased co-channel-interference (CCI) or constant envelope) that the transmitted signal is known to
Smart antenna transmitters emit less interference by only have. The smart antenna can also separate the signals from
sending RF power in the desired directions. Furthermore, multiple users who are separated in space (i.e. by distance)
’smart’ antenna receivers can reject interference by looking but who use the same radio channel (i.e. center frequency,
only in the direction of the desired source. Consequently ’smart’ time-slot, and/or code); this application is called Space-division
antennas are capable of decreasing CCI. A significantly reduced multiple access (SDMA).
CCI can be taken advantage of by Spatial Division Multiple
Access (SDMA). The same frequency band can be re-used in IV. SMART ANTENNA RELATED WORKS
more cells, i.e. the so called frequency re-use distance can be
decreased. This technique is called Channel Re-use via Spatial A. MBPVAA for Smart Antenna Applications in Cellular
Separation. Several mobiles can share the same frequency Systems
within a cell. Multiple signals arriving at the base station can In this paper author [4] has used a new array antenna concept
be separated by the base station receiver as long as their for application as smart antenna in cellular systems has been
angular separation is bigger than transmit / receive beam developed. He implemented as a compact, 4 x 4 dual polarized,
widths. The beams that are hatched identically use the same multiband array together with a calibration network which
frequency band. This technique is called Channel Re-use via satisfies the tight tolerances of the system requirements. A
Angular Separations. three-dimensional radiator structure made of metalized plastic
covers more than 20% bandwidth (VSWR<1.5) and allows
various polarizations, e.g., dual-slant polarization. A large
micro strip board for signal distribution forms a sandwich
structure together with a carbon-fiber reinforced back-plate
and a foam-filled epoxy radome (radar dome). These measures
keep the weight of the array exceptionally low while ensuring
high mechanical stability. A broad-band (15dB match over 20%
at 2GHz), polarization-versatile, low-weight array antenna has
been described. It contains a calibration network for application
in smart antenna cellular base-stations. The antenna combines
several progressive technologies in order to keep performance,
weight, and cost within limits: metalized plastic radiators,
printed circuit board networks, sandwich structure with
Fig. 3 : Omni Antennas reinforced shells. Particular efforts have been described to
keep couplings between antenna columns below -17dB without
deterioration of the tilted radiation pattern.

B. The WWRF and SAS Technology

In this paper Members [5] of the WWRF are typically
manufacturers, network operators/service providers, R&D
centers, universities and small and medium enterprises. In
particular, the WWRF identify and scope research issues
relevant to future mobile and wireless communications,
including pre-regulatory impact assessments and invite world-
wide participation. As such, the Forum provides a global platform
for discussion of results, exchange of views to initiate global
Fig. 4 : Smart Antennas cooperation towards systems beyond 3G. In particular, smart
antenna technology has become one of the most dominant
III. WORKING OF SMART ANTENNA technologies for future wireless systems. This paper gives an
Each antenna element "sees" each propagation path differently, overview of the WWRF and smart antenna technologies being
enabling the collection of elements to distinguish individual developed within the WWRF.
paths to within a certain resolution. As a consequence, smart
antenna transmitters can encode independent streams of data C. MLA for High Frequency RFID Smart Shelf
onto different paths or linear combinations of paths, thereby Application
increasing the data rate, or they can encode data redundantly In This paper author [6] has presented a patent-pending multi-
onto paths that fade independently to protect the receiver from loop antenna for HF (13.56MHz) RFID smart shelf applications.
catastrophic signal fades, thereby providing diversity gain. A The proposed antenna prototype has been able to generate
smart antenna receiver can decode the data from a smart magnetic field with uniform magnitude for a larger interrogation
antenna transmitter this is the highest-performing configuration region. In addition, the low profile structure makes it very easy

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for implementation and not necessary for any modification to main-directional pattern self-fit antenna for its reception and
the shelf. Hence, the system installation cost has been reduced sending. Synchronous uplink for smart one keeps unblocked
significantly. The patent-pending multi-loop antenna has been communication to overcome wave front distortion and multi-
used for RFID smart shelves which are implemented in library path interference. The reflector is very effectual method strong
for book management with achieved detection accuracy of signal for common antenna, but not suitable for smart one.
95-100%. Unidirectional antenna concentrates energy for long distance
point-to-point fixed communication and weakening signal, so
D. ATET Using an Interactive and Movie-based E-Book that it suits and penetrates through multi impediments.
In this paper author [7] has used a virtual tool (electronic book) for
antenna theory and electromagnetic propagation is presented. A V. Conclusions
variety of radiation and electromagnetic problems ranging from In conclusion to this paper “Smart Antenna” systems are the
linear antennas to arrays, radiation in time domain, micro strip antennas with intelligence and the radiation pattern can be
antennas, smart antennas, and reflectors can be simulated. varied without being mechanically changed. With appropriate
The material is useful both at undergraduate and graduate adaptive algorithms such as Recursive Least Square Algorithm
engineering courses. The education tool uses a user-friendly (RLS) the beam forming can be obtained. As the system uses a
interface thanks to MathCAD® software package which has DSP processor the signals can be processed digitally and the
been used to develop the electronic book. Moreover, navigation performance is with a high data rate transmission and good
throughout the book follows the same rules used by internet reduction of mutual signal interference.
users, therefore, no extra knowledge have to be introduced
on how to use the present tool. Besides the user-friendly References
interface, the book also features visualization capabilities, [1] [Online] Available : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_
3D representations and videos, which play a significant role antenna
in teaching. The electronic book comes with several exercise [2] PC Habib Awan, PC Khurrum Abdullah, Capt. Shahid
sections having twofold objectives: first, students can check Abbas, Capt. Ali Ahsan, “Implementation of Smart Antenna
their own progress, and second, data from such exercises is System, Dept. National University of Sciences, 2008.
provided to professor/mentor. This data is extremely useful to [3] Mohammad Darwish, Cecil Lau, “A Software Radio
determine whether a given section can be considered completely Architecture for Smart Antennas, Spectrum Signal
understood or some extra emphasize needs to be done. All the Processing”, Inc. Vancouver, Canada, January 2000.
material presented in the book can be complemented by extra [4] Martin Wagner, Uhland Goebel, Jan Hesselbarth, Mischa
peer review scientific papers given at the end of each section, Graeni, Peter Nuechter, M”ulti-Band Polarization-Versatile
most of them can be downloaded (obviously, depending on the Array Antenna for Smart Antenna Applications in Cellular
contract between university and editorial). The book has been Systems”, IEEE 2004.
tested using objective data resulting in good acceptance. We [5] Pieter van Rooyen, Angeliki Alexiou, “The Wireless World
have presented an e-book for antenna theory, electromagnetic Research Forum and Future Smart Antenna Technology”,
radiation and propagation based on MathCAD® software. IEEE 2006.
The e-book takes advantage of hypertext, interactivity and [6] Xianming Qing, Zhi Ning Chen, Ailian Cai, “Multi-loop
multimedia files to enhance comprehension and motivate Antenna for High Frequency RFID Smart Shelf Application”,
the student. The e-book contents and structure have been IEEE 2007.
presented: eight chapters for undergraduate and graduate [7] Jaume Anguera, Carlos Subías, Daniel Pérez, “Theory
level. The e-book has been objectively tested where results Education Tool Using an Interactive and Movie-based
encourage for further improvement of the present edition. Electronic Book”, IEEE 2007.
[8] Jianren Hu, Huibin Qin, “Reception Condition And
E. RC and EI to Smart Antenna Environment Influence to Smart Antenna”, Hangzhou
In this Research author [8] has actual working conditions Oianzi University, Hangzhou 310037, 2007.
influence to communication ability with common and similar
smart antenna. Methods: Experimental research, data SAVITRI KATARIYA received her B.E. degree
comparison and the results analysis comprehensively. Test in Electronics & Telecommunication Govt.
received and sent data-packets successful ratio, and its Engineering College, Jabalpur, India, in 1993,
reception intensity with antenna in USB network device in the M.E. degree in communication system
Windows 98 system, under AP (infra structure) mode with from Govt. Engineering College, Jabalpur, Rani
wireless broadband routers at several channels. It is greatly Durgavati University India, in 1997. She was
changing the similar smart antenna position indoors of crowd lecturer, in Mandsaur Institute of Technology in
residential area, under 1 to most several BSs at the same 1999, lecturer in Jiwaji University Gwalior, India in 2003 to 2005.
channel. Results: The reception intensity is 70~76%, even over She is presently working as Sr. lecturer, in Mahakal Institute
90% out of the door, the successful reception packets 14~20%, of Technology & Management Ujjain, India. In Department of
even below 10%; sending packets below 10% even 2% between Electronics & Communication Rajeev Gandhi University. Her
wireless router and adapter only, while signal penetrating research interests include digital signal processing, antenna
through the much impediment walls and buildings. Uplink error and wave propagation, Electromagnetic theory and microwave
is much more than Omni ones. A large reflector cannot efficiently engineering technique. At present, she is engaged in smart
raise the performance of similar smart antenna with its own antenna designing and simulation technique for Ph.D. topic.
indicate software. Conclusion: It is stronger than commons
in the field and less penetrating through impediments that

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