Smart Antenna - Beamforming

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 .