Analog Smart Antennas: An Overview invited

Takashi OHIRA, Senior Member, IEEE ATR Adaptive Communications Research Laboratories 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Keihanna Science City, Kyoto 619-0288 Japan ohira@atr.co.jp

Abstract Analog approaches are expected to offer dramatically low power consumption in smart antennas, especially for battery-operated wireless terminal devices. This paper overviews recently developed analog antenna techniques for smart beamforming. Hardware architectures, trained- and blind-control criteria, and adaptation algorithms are introduced along with state-of-the-art devices and a practical experiment. Keywords antenna, analog, adaptive, training, blind, criterion I. INTRODUCTION Along with the recent trends in electronic circuits for wireless devices, even the antenna beamforming network (BFN) has employed digital-based architectures. The digital beamforming (DBF) architecture [1] offers several fascinating functionalities, including programmable control of antenna radiation pattern, direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation, and adaptive steering of its beam and nulls to enhance the signal-to-interference-noise ratio (SINR). It is generally recognized that these advantages can only be carried out by digital technology. The analog approach, on the other hand, is re-emerging to create an alternative architecture of adaptive array antennas. The concept of analog beamforming itself was proposed more than forty years ago [2], but it is considered practically impossible for analog systems to provide the smart functionalities that DBF does. If analog beamforming is available in the RF stage of adaptive array antennas, it should be able to provide drastic improvement in both dc power dissipation and fabrication costs since it could eliminate the need for frequency converters and analog-

digital converters by the number of array branches [3]. This paper overviews the current status of analog antenna techniques for smart beamforming. Two alternative hardware topologies for analog beamformers, both trained and blind criteria for adaptation, and weight control algorithms are introduced along with state-of-the-art examples of their development. II. ANALOG BEAMFORMING ARCHITECTURES The history of practical analog beamforming antennas dates back to the Butler matrix [2], which consists of hybrid matrices and fixed phase shifters. Since the beam steering function is carried out by employing a selective RF switch, the steering angle is only discrete. Recently, some modern analog beamforming antennas have been reported [4]; however, they still use a switch-based operation that does not meet the demands of continuous steering. In attempts to steer beams continuously, unique architectures of analog beamforming [5-6] have been proposed. They offer continuous beamforming but unfortunately cannot control the direction of their nulls. One solution to continuous beam and null steering is to employ analog variable phase shifters in the beamformer [78] as shown in Fig. 1(a). The directivity or radiation pattern of this antenna is expressed as

Da (, ) = a (, ) w , where a is the steering vector to a specified direction of azimuth and elevation , superscript T stands for transposition, and w is the complex weight vector consisting of the phase shifters' microwave transfer coefficients. This formula is mathematically the same as the array factor for DBF antennas. In practice, highly sophisticated skills are
A/D criterion optimizer feedback

A/D

criterion optimizer

feedback (a) Analog beamforming by microwave variable phase shifters. (b) Aerial beamforming by space-coupled parasites with varactor termination.

Fig. 1 Analog smart antenna topologies.

0-7803-7589-0/02/$17.00 2002 IEEE

PIMRC 2002

Complex Weight Control

y (t ) =

#1 #2 . . .

i=1

Si (t ) Da ( i, i ) De ( i, i ) + n (t ) ,

where Si(t) and n(t) are time-domain waveforms of the i-th signal and the receiver's additive noise, Da is the array factor specified in the previous chapter, and De is the directivity of each radiator element. The primary objective is to extract the desired one from among the mingled received signals, even when the arrival directions of the waves are unknown to the receiver. To distinguish the desired signal from interference, we use a training code contained within the desired signals wireless packet frame. To estimate the difference between the received signal and the training code, the Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) criterion, i.e., min J ( y) ; J ( y) = E y (ts )- r (ts ) 2 ,
w

RF Output

RF Input

Complex Weight Control

#32

Fig. 2 An 11 mm x 13 mm GaAs MMIC chip consisting of thirty-two analog variable phase shifters and signal combiners operating at 2.5 GHz. (Courtesy of NTT Wireless Labs.)

needed to design and fabricate variable phase shifters for the microwave frequency range, but MMIC techniques are advancing so rapidly that large-scale circuitry of 32 phase shifters and signal combiners can be integrated into the single state-of-the-art GaAs monolithic chip [7] shown in Fig. 2. Another analog solution involves the passive or parasitic array antennas [9-12] shown in Fig. 1(b), which provide beam steering with low dc power dissipation and low fabrication cost. These advantages are critical, especially for the development of battery-operated popular wireless devices. The directivity or radiation pattern of this antenna is expressed as 1 T Da (, ) = a(, ) Z + diag[ zs , jx1 , jx2 , , jx K } uo ,

is generally used for DBF antennas. Here, ts is the slicing instance for signal sampling, r(t) is the reference code for training, and E stands for expectation operator or the average of p signal samples defined as 1 p E[ x (ts )] x (ts ) . p s =1 This criterion is unsuitable for analog antennas because they cannot instantly adjust the amplitude of the received signal due to the simplicity of the analog hardware. Instead of MMSE, a more general criterion called the Maximum Cross Correlation Coefficient (MCCC) criterion, i.e., E [ y (ts ) r (ts ) *] 2 , max J ( y) ; J ( y) = x1 , x 2 ,..., x K E y ( ts ) 2 E r ( ts ) 2

] [

is used for analog smart antennas [13-15]. Analog antennas, in general, require more sophisticated control software than DBF antennas. This is due to their quite drastically simplified hardware architecture compared with DBF's. Since the above criterion is normalized by the magnitude of both the signal and training code, the waveform comparison between them is properly executed even with unwanted analog amplitude deviation in the wireless link.

1
functional , Jm {y(t)}

where xk is the reactance of the k-th varactor, K is the number of parasitic radiators, uo is a unit vector, and zs is the input impedance of the RF receiver. The impedance matrix Z characterizes the electromagnetic mutual coupling among the parasitic radiators. Mutual coupling plays an essential role in parasitic array antennas, while it might degrade the beamforming performance in DBF antennas. III. TRAINED CRITERIA The basic goal of a smart antenna is to maximize the output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) when not only the desired wave but also interference arrives. In an environment where multiple waves are arriving, the antenna's response is the superposition of each wave, resulting in

J2

0.5

J3 J4

0 -10 0 10 20 30
signal-to-noise ratio, S/N[dB]
J2: BPSK, J3: TPSK, J4: QPSK

Fig. 3 Blind objective functions for B-, T-, and Q-PSK criteria.

IV. BLIND CRITERIA A more formidable challenge arises in maximizing the SINR when the transmitted signal includes no training code or when the signal waveform is unknown to the receiver. The objective of blind beamformers is to extract the desired one from among the mingled received signal without having any information about the transmission beforehand. The simplest blind criterion applicable to analog antennas is Power Inversion (PI), which was used in a military radar antenna to nullify jamming waves [9-10]. The PI criterion is so naive that it works only when the jamming waves are much stronger than the signal of interest and the number of jamming waves are greater than the antenna's degree of freedom. Otherwise, the PI indiscriminately suppresses not only jamming waves but also the desired signal. A brilliant technique to overcome this naiveness is the Constant Modulus Algorithm (CMA) [16]. It captures the strongest constant-amplitude wave and suppress all of the other waves at the same time. To apply CMA to analog antennas, some modification with an additional gain control function [8] is needed because analog phase shifters cannot adjust the amplitude of received waves. To establish the blind beamforming in analog antennas without amplitude adjustment, the Maximum Moment Criterion (MMC), i.e., interference wave steering vector arrival signal wave form

max J ( y) ; J ( y) =
x1 , x 2 ,..., x K

E [ y ( ts ) ] E y ( ts )

is recommended [17]. The objective function of MMC is defined by using the first- and second-order moments of statistics in observed amplitude for received signals. This criterion is mathematically equivalent to minimization of the received signal's amplitude deviation and analogous to CMA in blind DBF antennas. The unique feature of MMC is that you can apply it to analog antennas even if the target amplitude is unknown to the receiver. When the receiver knows the modulation scheme of the desired signal, more informative criteria can be used. For example, the m-th order moment criterion, i.e.,

x1 , x 2 ,..., x K

max J m ( y) ; J m ( y) =

E y ( ts ) m E

y ( ts )

2m

desired wave steering vector

radiator radius radiator length radiator space

is particularly useful for m-ary phase-shift-keying (mPSK) modulated waves [18-19]. This criterion effectively works based on the principle that the m-th power of an m-ary PSK signal has constant amplitude and phase, no matter what the modulating data are. Figure 3 plots the estimated values of Jm(y) as a function of the received signal-to-noise ratio for B-, T-, and Q-PSK modulated waves. Since Jm(y) ranges from zero to unity monotonously, it is expected that the noise and unsynchronized interference are adaptively minimized by maximizing Jm(y). V. ADAPTIVE CONTROL ALGORITHMS In the final stage of the beam adaptation process, we control the variable reactors to optimize the beamform. This is carried out by an iterative cycle of four strokes: 1) observe the waveform y(t) and slice it at t = ts 2) estimate SNR using the objective function Jm(y) 3) perturb the varactors to evaluate the gradient Jm(y)/x 4) decide the direction and size for the step of reactance, then go back to the first stroke. In executing this cycle, we use an optimization technique based on the steepest gradient Jm(y)/x. It is convenient to introduce a reactance vector defined as x = [ x1, x2, , xK ]T for describing the updated reactance as J ( y ) x(n + 1) = x(n) + for max J ( y) , || J ( y) || x1 , x2 ,..., x K where x(n) denotes the reactance vector for the n-th cycle of iteration. Mathematically speaking, this is a problem of walking and seeking the optimal set of variables in a sixdimensional space where the objective function does not have a stable surface since it suffers from eventually deviating noise and unsynchronously interfering waves. To mitigate the deviation effects, the gradient is normalized with the norm of itself in the above equation so that we can fix the walking step size at an empirical constant , while the walking direction is only specified by the gradient vector. To accelerate the speed of convergence, a variable technique [14] was also proposed instead of using a constant

S (t ) =

array manifold A() =

a (1 ),, a ( m )

[S1 (t ), , Sm (t )]T

impedance matrix [Z]

additive noise n( t )

antenna output signal y( t ) =

T

equivalent weight vector

i A() S ( t )
+ n( t )

i =

directivity array factor Da =

T

s ( Z + X ) 1 u 0

a ()

output SINR S

blind objective function

N+I

{ E y( t ) } J=
E y( t )
2

reactance diagonal matrix [X] = diag[ zs , jx1 , , jx6 ]

reactance updating J x n +1 = x n + J k = 1, 2,, 6

feedback control

Fig. 4 Flow chart to explain the mechanism of analog smart antennas.

 in the above iteration. Depending on the radio environments, the iteration may fall into a local optimum problem. To get out of it, techniques using Monte-Carlo methods, genetic algorithms, or a Hamiltonian algorithm [20] are helpful in finding an appropriate initial reactance value prior to the iteration process. In environments susceptible to multi-path rays, like indoor spaces with reflection from walls, time-domain signal processing is applied, such as using tapped-delay-line equalizers. A digital signal processor for the time domain and an analog smart antenna for the space domain go hand-in-hand with each other and illustrate the efficacy of adapting each to the other [21]. The mechanism of such an analog smart antenna is summarized in the flow chart of Fig. 4. VI. APPLICATIONS TO WIRELESS SYSTEMS Analog smart antennas are simple and inexpensive, so they are highly suited to various consumer devices such as access base stations and user terminals for wireless LANs. Especially effective would be their application to wireless ad hoc communication networks [22-28]. These have practical requirements for low power consumption and low fabrication costs because they consist of only consumer terminal devices without any infrastructure such as base stations. The analog antenna approach is expected to meet this requirement. Among the experiments on wireless ad hoc networks now being done as feasibility studies, Fig. 5 shows snapshots of the experiment [29-30] to verify the transmission power savings and frequency reuse achieved by space-division multiple access (SDMA) exploiting the advantages of analog smart antennas. VII. CONCLUSIONS Analog beamforming dramatically simplifies the configuration of adaptive array antennas. In particular, the frequency converters and analog-digital converters used in DBF antennas are no longer needed. The key techniques for success with analog smart antennas are to employ a simple hardware topology, to choose an optimal criterion, and to install a fast-convergence adaptation algorithm. The inherent inaccuracy of analog devices is automatically compensated by using an appropriate criterion and feedback control. The trained- and blind-based analog adaptive approaches promise to be breakthroughs to new and wider application fields of consumer wireless systems. Acknowledgment The author thanks Dr. B. Komiyama for his stimulating encouragement throughout the work. This work is supported in part by Telecommunications Advancement Organization of Japan. (c) Calibration of beam control characteristics. Fig. 5 Snapshots of analog smart antennas. References J. Litva et al., Digital Beamforming in Wireless Communications, pp. 28-34, Artech House, BostonLondon, 1996.

(a) Prototype seven-element parasitic array covered with a translucent radome.

(b) Trial application to a wireless ad hoc network experiment.

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