Hiroshi KUBO Masayuki MATSUSHITA Ikuo AWAI
The radiation patterns are synthesized by properly disposing surface variations on dielectric rod waveguides. The genetic algorithm (GA) is applied for searching the optimum disposition of variation sections. A very fast calculation method used in the optimization is presented. The guided waves are related in the form of a 2-port circuit and the radiation field is expressed by superposition of the waves from variation sections. Various conical beams can be synthesized. Short variation sections and combination of several variation sections with different height are used to improve the synthesis performance. The ripple of the mainlobe and the sidelobe levels become small. Spherical sector patterns with a steep fall are synthesized and the agreement with the experimental values is confirmed.
Hitomi TERAOKA Masahiro NISHI Teruaki YOSHIDA
In wireless access system, we need to use a limited frequency and electric power efficiently. And so we propose the fixed wireless access network using 5 GHz frequency which band has a good propagation performance in line of sight (LOS). In the proposed network, the several multi-level modulation methods are combined and identical frequency is reused by considering on the antenna directivity. As constructing this network, we can efficiently use frequency in 5 GHz band and enlarge system capacity. In this paper, it is assumed that user terminals are distributed nonuniformly over the service area. We analyze accommodation number of user terminals and the optimum combination of modulation methods. Numerical results show that most effective method is the combination of 16QAM and 256QAM, which can accommodate up to about 1.4 times as many users as only QPSK modulation method.
This study investigates the anisotropy substrate and dielectric cover effects of the rectangular microstrip patch antenna on anisotropy substrates with air gap, based on rigorous full-wave analysis and Galerkin's moment method. Results show that the resonant frequencies in the variation of air gap, patch length, and permittivity of superstrate can be determined and analyzed with varying dielectric cover thickness.
Shiann-Shiun JENG Chia-Yuan HUANG Chih-Yang LAI
In wireless communications, a smart antenna system utilizes an antenna array to acquire the spatial signatures of transmitted signals. This system uses the difference in the spatial signatures or the direction of arrival (DOA) of signals to correctly obtain the desired signal. This can reduce co-channel interference, mitigate the fading phenomenon caused by multipath transmissions, improve the communication quality and increase the system capacity. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of smart antennas using four beamforming algorithms applied to a wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) system. The simulation results show that, based on the same power consumption at the transceiver and using a Rake receiver, a W-CDMA system with a smart antenna can operate at a lower bit error rate at the specific signal to noise ratio (SNR). Moreover, the smart antenna system accommodates more users at the specific signal to interference ratio (SIR), even though a certain angle difference exists between the actual DOAs and the estimated DOAs.
Koichi ICHIGE Masashi SHINAGAWA Hiroyuki ARAI
This paper studies on a fast approach for the eigenproblems of correlation matrices used in direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms, especially for the case that the number of arriving waves is a few. The eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenvectors can be obtained in a very short time by the algebraic solvent of up to quartic polynomials. We also confirm that the present approach does not make the accuracy worse when it is implemented by finite word-length processors like digital signal processor (DSP) or field programmable gate array (FPGA).
Hidekazu TAOKA Shinya TANAKA Taisuke IHARA Kenichi HIGUCHI Mamoru SAWAHASHI
This paper presents laboratory and field experimental results of the coherent adaptive antenna array diversity (CAAAD) receiver employing receiver antenna-weight generation common to all Rake-combined paths (hereafter path-common weight generation method) in the W-CDMA reverse link, in order to elucidate the suitability of the path-common weight generation method in high-elevation antenna environments such as cellular systems with a macrocell configuration. Laboratory experiments using multipath fading simulators and RF phase shifters elucidate that even when the ratio of the target Eb/I0 of the desired to interfering users is Δ Eb/I0=-12 dB, the increase in the average transmit Eb/N0 employing the CAAAD receiver coupled with fast transmission power control (TPC) using outer-loop control from that for Δ Eb/I0=0 dB is within only 1.0 dB owing to the accurate beam and null steering associated with fast TPC. Furthermore, field experiments demonstrate that the required transmission power at the average block error rate (BLER) of 10-2 employing the CAAAD receiver with four antennas is reduced by more than 2 dB compared to that using a four-branch space diversity receiver using maximum ratio combining (MRC) with the fading correlation between antennas of 0 when Δ Eb/I0=-15 dB and that the loss in the required transmission power of the CAAAD receiver in the same situation as that in a single-user environment is approximately 1 dB. The field experimental results in an actual propagation environment suggest that the CAAAD receiver is effective in suppressing multiple access interference, thus decreasing the required transmission power when the gap in the direction of arrival between the desired user and interfering users is greater than approximately 20 degrees.
Keizo CHO Kentaro NISHIMORI Toshikazu HORI
The adaptive base station antenna is an attractive candidate for establishing high-speed and highly-reliable wireless communication systems. From a commercial viewpoint, since the cost and complexity of adaptive antennas depend on the number of elements, optimizing the antenna configuration while considering the propagation environment is necessary to reduce the number of elements. This paper first presents the Angle of Arrival (AOA) characteristics of delayed waves in a street microcell environment, typically used in urban microcell systems. Then the antenna configuration and antenna spacing suitable for the street microcell are investigated utilizing bit error rate (BER) performance simulations using practical delay profiles and AOAs. The effectiveness of bidirectional elements with respect to the BER performance is also investigated. As the results, we found that broadside array with the spacing of 2.5 wavelengths is suitable for adaptive base station antennas for high data-rate wireless systems placed in a street microcell environment. We also found that bidirectional elements alleviate the BER degradation due to the grating lobe of the antenna with wide element spacing without increasing the antenna size.
Angel ANDRADE David COVARRUBIAS
Array antennas are employed at the receiver for a variety of purposes such as to combat fading or to reduce co-channel interference. To evaluate the performance of a wireless communications system using antenna arrays it becomes necessary to have spatial channel models that describe the Angle of Arrival (AOA), Time of Arrival (TOA) and the Angle Spread (AS) of the multipath components. Among the most widely used radio propagation models is the single bounce scattering geometric model, where propagation between the transmitting and receiving antennas is assumed to take place via single scattering from an intervening obstacle. Currently, several geometric models are available such as circular and elliptical scattering models, with each model being applicable to a specific environment type. This paper addresses the modeling, simulation and evaluation of the angle spread in smart antenna systems taking into account the Gaussian density model, and proves that the model finds use both in a micro cell as well as in a macro cell environment. Moreover, we show statistics for the angle and time of arrival.
Xuan Nam TRAN Tetsuki TANIGUCHI Yoshio KARASAWA
This paper presents the theoretical analysis of subband adaptive array combining cyclic prefix transmission scheme (SBAA-CP) in multipath fading environment. The exact expressions for optimal weights, array outputs and the output signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) are derived. The analysis shows that use of the cyclic prefix data transmission scheme can significantly improve the performance of subband adaptive array (SBAA). An example of implementing SBAA-CP as a software antenna is also presented.
A new approach to build up a real-time multiprocessing system that is configuration flexible for evaluating space-time (ST) equalizers is described. The core of the system consists of fully programmable devices such as digital signal processors (DSPs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and reduced instruction set computers (RISCs) with a real-time operating system (RTOS). The RTOS facilitates flexibility in the multi-processor configuration for the system conforming with ST processing algorithms. Timing jitter synchronization caused by use of the RTOS-embedded system is shown, and an adjustable frame format for a transmission system is described as a measure to avoid the jitter problem. Bit error rate (BER) performances measured in uncorrelated frequency-selective fading channels show that an ST equalizer provides a significantly lower BER than an array processor does.
Qing HAN Keizo INAGAKI Kyouichi IIGUSA Robert SCHLUB Takashi OHIRA Masami AKAIKE
Harmonic distortions of a recently developed lightweight film-type ESPAR (Electronically Steerable Passive Array Radiator) antenna are investigated experimentally. These distortions arise from the nonlinearity of the varactor diodes that are directly integrated with the parasitic radiator elements to control the antenna's radiation pattern. A reactive-near-field measurement technique that employs low-interference probes in an ultra-small anechoic box is used to reduce experimental time and cost. An anti-series varactor pair is introduced and compared with the conventional single varactor. Consequently, an ESPAR antenna equipped with the anti-series varactor pair exhibits remarkable suppression of nonlinear distortion. In particular, the second- and the third-order harmonic is reduced by approximately 20 dB and 12 dB from the level of a single varactor type ESPAR antenna, respectively.
Fundamental EMI source that generates common-mode radiation from printed circuit boards (PCBs) is investigated here. It is done by modelling the ground lines of PCBs as imperfect ground. The radiation emission in the far zones from PCBs is obtained by regarding interconnects on PCBs as transmission lines and the far field emission is evaluated based on the current distribution of the lines. The finite size ground trace is defined as an imperfect ground, that can be viewed as an inductive reactance which, in turn, causes the ground return path to radiate as a wire antenna. For the accurate analysis of imperfect ground effect, we divide the equivalent circuit into N sections. In addition, based on transverse electromagnetic (TEM) assumption, we estimate the electromagnetic interference (EMI) of three typical PCB geometries, namely, coplanar strips, parallel-plate strips and microstrips. The quantitative value of induced current distribution along the ground return path depends on the physical size, geometry and length of ground traces. Measured data are presented to confirm the result of numerical analysis. A knowledge of EMI source mechanisms and their relationship to layout geometries is necessary to determine the essential features that must be taken into account to estimate emissions and provide direction for reducing EMI due to interconnects on PCBs.
Minseok KIM Koichi ICHIGE Hiroyuki ARAI
Computing the Eigen Value Decomposition (EVD) of a symmetric matrix is a frequently encountered problem in adaptive (or smart or software) antenna signal processing, for example, super resolution DOA (Direction Of Arrival) estimation algorithms such as MUSIC (MUltiple SIgnal Classification) and ESPRIT (Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Technique). In this paper the hardware architecture of the fast EVD processor of symmetric correlation matrices for the application of an adaptive antenna technology such as DOA estimation is proposed and the basic idea is also presented. Cyclic Jacobi method is well known for the simplest algorithm and easily implemented but its convergence time is slower than other factorization algorithm like QR-method. But if considering the fast parallel computation of the EVD with a hardware architecture like ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), the Jacobi method can be a appropriate solution, since it offers a quite higher degree of parallelism and easier implementation than other factorization algorithms. This paper computes the EVD using a Jacobi-type method, where the vector rotations and the angles of the rotations are obtained by CORDIC (COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer). The hardware architecture suitable for ASIC or FPGA with fixed-point arithmetic is presented. Because it consists of only shift and add operations, this hardware friendly feature provides easy and efficient implementation. In this paper, the computational load, the estimate of circuit scale and expected performance are discussed and the validation of fixed-point arithmetic for the practical application to MUSIC DOA estimation is examined.
Shinya TANAKA Mamoru SAWAHASHI Heiichi YAMAMOTO
This paper investigates an accurate channel estimation method using the common pilot channel (CPICH) in addition to a dedicated pilot channel (PICH) when the fading correlation between the dedicated PICH and CPICH is high, and clarifies the area in which the proposed channel estimation method is effective for adaptive antenna array transmit diversity (AAA-TD) in the forward link. Computer simulation results elucidate that although a more precise channel estimation is possible by using the primary-CPICH (P-CPICH) transmitted from an omni-directional antenna in addition to the dedicated PICH for the area where the distance, d, between a base station and a mobile terminal is longer than approximately 200 m, no improvement is obtained for the area where the value of d is shorter than approximately 200 m. Meanwhile, by employing the secondary-CPICH (S-CPICH) transmitted with several directional beams in addition to the dedicated PICH, the required average received Eb/N0 at the average BER of 10-3 is decreased by approximately 0.4 (0.2-0.4) dB compared to the channel estimation method using only the dedicated PICH regardless of the value of d when the number of antennas is 4 (8).
Yoshihiro ICHIKAWA Koji TOMITSUKA Shigeki OBOTE Kenichi KAGOSHIMA
When we use an adaptive array antenna (AAA) with the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion under the multipath environment, where the receiving signal level varies, it is difficult for the AAA to converge because of the distortion of the desired wave. Then, we need the equalization both in space and time domains. A tapped-delay-line adaptive array antenna (TDL-AAA) and the AAA with linear equalizer (AAA-LE) have been proposed as simple space-temporal equalization. The AAA-LE has not utilized the recursive least square (RLS) algorithm. In this paper, we propose a space-temporal simultaneous processing equalizer (ST-SPE) that is an AAA-LE with the RLS algorithm. We proposed that the first tap weight of the LE should be fixed and the necessity of that is derived from a normal equation in the MMSE criterion. We achieved the space-temporal simultaneous equalization with the RLS algorithm by this configuration. The ST-SPE can reduce the computational complexity of the space-temporal joint equalization in comparison to the TDL-AAA, when the ST-SPE has almost the same performance as the TDL-AAA in multipath environment with minimum phase condition such as appeared at line-of-sight (LOS).
Qiang CHEN Qiaowei YUAN Kunio SAWAYA
A new iterative algorithm based on the Gauss-Seidel iteration method is proposed to solve the matrix equation in the MoM analysis of the array antennas. In the new algorithm, the impedance matrix is decomposed into a number of sub matrices, which describe the self and mutual impedance between the groups of the array, and each sub matrix is regarded as a basic iteration unit rather than the matrix element in the ordinary Gauss-Seidel iteration method. It is found that the convergence condition of the ordinary Gauss-Seidel iteration scheme is very strict for the practical use, while the convergence characteristics of the present algorithm are greatly improved. The new algorithm can be applied to the sub domain MoM with a fast convergence if the grouping technique is properly used. The computation time for solving the matrix equation is reduced to be almost proportional to the square of the number of the array elements. The present method is effective in MoM analysis of solving large-scale array antennas.
This paper presents the basic characteristics of a forced resonant type EMI dipole antenna for frequencies below 80 MHz in which two reactance elements are used for the impedance matching at the feed point. The input impedance of the short dipole less than half-wavelength is controlled by the properly determined loading position and the value of loading reactance. The integral equation for unknown current distribution is solved by Galerkin's method of moments with piecewise sinusoidal functions. The numerical results show that the small-sized EMI dipole antenna with lower antenna factors for frequencies below 80 MHz can be realized by the reactance loading. In case the proposed center driven small-sized EMI dipole antenna with 0.3λ length is loaded c=0.133λ from the center, the input impedance is matched at feed line with 50 Ω, and hence the antenna has lower factors in the frequency range of 30 to 80 MHz. Also the normalized site attenuation characteristics are presented for the forced resonant type EMI dipole antenna.
In this study, a new signal model suitable for indoor environments with large angle spread is proposed to improve the performance of indoor wireless communication systems. And antenna array techniques adopted for this model are discussed. It is based on the far-field signal assumption. The optimal beamforming weight vector is obtained by applying the antenna algorithm based on the maximum signal to interference noise ratio criterion to the model. The proposed model is verified using a mathematical analysis and computer simulations.
Zhengzi LI Sungsoo AHN Seungwon CHOI
This paper proposes a new blind adaptive algorithm for computing the weight vector of an antenna array system. The new technique utilizes a Generalized On-Off algorithm to obtain the weight vector from the pilot channel of IS2000 1X system, of which the processing gain can be controlled arbitrarily. The proposed algorithm generates a suboptimal weight vector maximizing the SINR (signal to interference plus noise ratio) with a linear computational load. Based on the analysis obtained from various simulations, it is observed that the proposed algorithm is suitable for the practical IS2000 1X mobile communication environments.
In this paper, we study a low profile top loaded monopole antenna. By changing the number, thickness, position and shape of post(s), the input and radiation characteristic due to parameters of matching post(s) are investigated. The low profile top loaded monopole antenna (TLMA) is known as a suitable way for antenna's miniaturization. But it is also reported that the parameters of matching post influence the input and radiation characteristic greatly. The FDTD method is well suit for use in analyzing both the plate and wire structure. And to improve the calculation effect efficiency, the non-uniform mesh FDTD algorithm is used. From the measurement and simulation results, we propose the most suitable parameters of matching structure for low profile top loaded monopole antenna.