A UWB Antenna Combined with a Recongurable

Bandpass Filter for Cognitive Radio Applications

M. Al-Husseini

A. Ramadan
A. El-Hajj

M.E. Zamudio
C.G. Christodoulou

K.Y. Kabalan

Abstract A single-port small-size antenna for cognitive radio (CR) applications is presented. The antenna is based on an ultra-wideband (UWB) design
and has a recongurable bandpass lter integrated
in its feed line. The UWB operation is required
for the sensing task in a CR system. Upon activating the lter, the UWB frequency response is
transformed into a tunable narrowband one, which
is needed for the communication task.

same volume. The wideband antenna is a CPWfed printed hour-glass-shaped monopole that operates from 3 to 11 GHz. The narrowband antenna
is a microstrip patch printed on the reverse side
of the substrate, and connected to the wideband
antenna via a shorting pin and designed to operate from 5.15 to 5.35 GHz. The antenna presented
in [4] is also dual-port, where one port interfaces
an egg-shaped UWB printed monopole and is used
1 INTRODUCTION
for sensing, and the second port, which is used
for communicating, connects to a matched 40mmAn increasing demand on radio spectrum has relong 1mm-wide microstrip line. Electronic switches
sulted from the emergence of feature-rich and highare placed along this microstrip line to make it
data-rate wireless applications. The spectrum is
frequency-recongurable.
initially scarce, and the current radio spectrum regIn this paper, a single-port antenna for CR is
ulations make its use inecient. This necessitates
presented. The antenna is basically UWB, which
the development of new dynamic spectrum allocamakes it sensing-capable, and has a recongurable
tion policies to better exploit the existing spectrum.
bandpass lter embedded in its feed line. When
According to the current spectrum allocation reg- activated, the lter can transform the UWB freulations, specic bands are assigned to particular quency response into a tunable narrowband one,
services, and only licensed users are granted ac- which is suitable for the communication operation
cess to licensed bands. Cognitive radio [1] is ex- of the CR system.
pected to revolutionize the way spectrum is allocated. In a CR network following the hierarchical
2 ANTENNA CONFIGURATION
access model [2], the intelligent radio part allows
unlicensed users (secondary users) to access spec- The conguration of the presented antenna is
trum bands licensed to primary users, while avoid- shown in Fig. 1. It uses a 30 35 1.6 mm3
ing interference with them. One approach to this Taconic TLY substrate with a dielectric constant
spectrum sharing between primary and secondary r = 2.2, and features a partial rectangular ground
users is spectrum overlay. In spectrum overlay CR, plane, a rectangular patch, and a curved matchsecondary users search for unused frequency bands, ing section between the microstrip feed line and the
called white spaces, and use them to communicate. patch. The lter, whose design relies on the work in
Thus, in a cognitive radio system, there is need [5], is based on a symmetrical defected microstrip
for an antenna to be used for monitoring the spec- structure (DMS) implemented in the feed line of
trum (sensing), and communicating over a cho- the UWB antenna. A closer view of the lter part,
sen white space (communication). When used for with detailed dimensions, is shown in Fig. 1(b). It
communicating, the antenna must be frequency- has a T-shaped slot, which by itself, has bandstop
recongurable, to be tuned to the band selected characteristics. However, when placed between a
for communication.
pair of gaps, which act as capacitors, a bandpass
Recently, there has been some research on the structure results.
design of antennas for cognitive radio systems. In
For the purpose of achieving frequency recon[3], the authors propose a system that combines gurability, three pairs of gaps are symmetrically
a wideband and a narrowband antennas into the placed around the T-slot, and seven electronic
switches, each 0.5 0.25 mm2 in size, are placed
ECE Department, American University of Beirut,
across the slots as shown in Fig. 1. Six switching
Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon, e-mail: husseini@ieee.org
ECE Department, University of New Mexico, Albucases are considered, as indicated in Table 1. Case
0 corresponds to all the switches being ON. In this
querque, NM 87131, USA, e-mail: mzamudio@ece.unm.edu

978-1-4577-0048-4/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

902

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The design was simulated using Ansoft HFSS. A

prototype was fabricated, and the reection coecient was measured for the adopted switching cases.
Without loss of accuracy, copper tapes were used
to represent switches in their ON state. The computed and measured reection coecient plots for
the six switching cases are given in Figs. 2 and 3,
respectively. Good agreement is witnessed between
simulated and measured results. The operation of
the antenna makes it suitable for employment in
cognitive radio applications, where Case 0 could be
used for sensing the channel (to determine the white
spaces), and the other cases for communicating in
the corresponding white space. Further resonances
can be obtained by including more gaps around the
T-slot and appropriately choosing their locations
and widths.

(a)

Figure 2: Simulated reection coecient.

(b)

Figure 1: (a) Antenna conguration, and (b) closer

view of the embedded lter
case, the eect of the lter is canceled, bringing
back the UWB response of the antenna. The frequency characteristics of the lter depend on the
dimensions of the slots, and on the switching state.
Case
0
1
2
3
4
5

Switches in OFF state

None (all ON)
S0, S1, S6
S0, S1, S5
S0, S2, S5
S0, S3, S5
S0, S3, S4

Table 1: The six adopted switching cases.

Figure 3: Measured reection coecient.

Since the antenna is a printed monopole, it is expected to oer omnidirectional radiation patterns.
This is veried in Fig. 4 where the normalized Hand E-plane gain patterns are shown, for switching
Case 4 (f = 7.6 GHz). For this case, and at this
frequency, the computed peak is 5.4 dB. Similarly
good gain values are recorded in the other operation
bands for the other switching cases.

903

can be realized by including more gaps with optimized parameters to extend the lters operation
range.
References
[1] J. Mitola and G. Q. Maguire, Cognitive radio:
making software radios more personal, IEEE
Pers. Commun., vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 1318, Aug.
1999.
[2] K.-C. Chen and R. Prasad, Cognitive Radio
Networks, John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex,
United Kingdom, 2009.
Figure 4: Radiation patterns at 7.6 GHz (switching
case 4) in the H-plane (solid line) and the E-plane
(dashed line).

[3] E. Ebrahimi, and P.S. Hall, A dual port widenarrowband antenna for cognitive radio, The
third European Conference on Antennas and
Propagation, pp. 809812, Mar. 2009.

[4] M. Al-Husseini, Y. Tawk, C.G. Christodoulou,

K.Y. Kabalan, and A. El-Hajj, A recongurable cognitive radio antenna design, The
A single-port recongurable antenna for CR appli2010 IEEE AP-S International Symposium on
cations was presented. The design features a bandAntennas and Propagation, pp.14, 1117 July
pass lter embedded in the feed line of a UWB
2010.
antenna. Electronic switches are incorporated on
[5] M. Kazerooni, A. Cheldavi, and M. Kamarei,
the lter to activate/deactivate it and control its
A novel bandpass defected microstrip strucbandpass frequency. With this conguration, the
ture (DMS) lter for planar circuits, The 2009
antenna can be used to sense a UWB band, and
Progress in Electromagnetics Research Sympolater communicate over a selected narrow band.
sium (PIERS2009), pp. 12141217, 1821 AuImproved narrowband frequency recongurability
gust 2009.
4

CONCLUSION

904