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Smart Antenna Controller Trends Report
West Technology Research Solutions, July 2006, Pages: 167
A View Of Smart Antennas Today
Smart Antennas have been around for decades, but today they are in the process of getting even smarter. For the past ten-plus years, and with the development of multiple antennas for transmission and reception, known also as space-time communication, Smart Antenna technology has become a serious research and development arena. It is a branch of wireless communications that makes use of the ‘space dimension’ (i.e. antennas) along with the traditional time dimension in modulation and coding at the transmitter, and demodulation and decoding at the receiver in order to improve the performance of wireless links. Today companies in the US, Japan, and Europe are in high gear to take advantage of the benefits that smart antennas promise. With increasing adoption of wireless access and wireless service on the part of the consumer, the imminence of pervasive 3G service (UMTS and CDMA2000) , 4G already more than a concept, and diminishing available spectrum have combined to make smart antenna technology essential. Already in use in combination with cell phones, television, and in industrial applications, smart antennas are no longer a choice, but a necessity for the industrialized world. It is clear, for example, that without smart antenna technology WiMAX and WLAN applications are unable to reach their natural potential.
Smart antenna technology has the capability to extend the range and increase efficiency of communications for nearly every wireless communications technology and protocol with perhaps the practical exception of Ultrawideband.
FCC As A Driving Force for Smart Antenna Development
The impetus for the FCC’s urge for spectral efficiencies with smart antennas and cognitive radio schemes is the need to provide the government with increased spectrum availability and improved operator economy. The evolution and development of Smart Antennas have been driven by economics.
SiBeam: The Next ArrayComm?
Developments in smart antenna markets over the last 6 months that have had the most impact have been the rise to power of ArrayComm, an event predicted by our analysis of its intense and unerring drive to develop intellectual property, and the emergence of SiBeam.
SiBeam is a newly-founded company stuffed to the gills with highly-educated and well-connected professionals. The press SiBeam has received qualifies it as a wireless chip company, however once a bit more background research is performed on the company and its founders, it becomes apparent that the company has a very large play in the smart antenna market. In fact, SiBeam may be one of the few companies to attempt a cost-effective implementation of a true adaptive smart antenna as envisioned by Dick Roy in the 1970’s. Given the company’s significant activity in the IEEE 802.16e working group through a graduate student, developing much of the technology whose advisor is SiBeam’s Chairman of the Board, it is likely that the company will have a mobile consumer market focus. This hypothesis is strengthened by the background of many of the company principals: Appairent Technologies (a Kodak /Motorola spin-off), 2Wire, Broadcom, and others.
Available technical antenna theory describing SiBeam implementation bears strong similarity to original Dick Roy patents and US Army research. Given Dick Roy’s background as one of the founders of ArrayComm, SiBeam may be in for a rocky start.
Smart Antenna Market Penetration Model
Unlike UWB, ZigBee, and Bluetooth which still developing protocols and adapting to market niches, Smart Antenna technology is moving directly into maturing markets that are ready and waiting to imbibe add-on features to existing products. As such Smart Antennas technology offers a second revenue wave in the channel that is already under a company’s command, with an established presence in a matured segment that is experiencing declining margins.
Intel is clearly leading with foresight in this area, as can be seen in the following example. Ever looking to stay one or two steps ahead of their competition, it is not surprising that the company has a large footprint in the wireless technology arena. To this end Intel engaged Motia to integrate smart antenna technology into Wi-Fi and WiMAX product lines. Motia designs RF ICs to support adaptive beam forming techniques and boost signal-to-noise ratios. Wi-Fi, WiMAX, CDMA2000, and Digital TV processing are among the first to benefit from Smart Antenna development, especially with multi-path advantages of the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) model, the next generation of smart antenna.
Industry Description
Since the mid-to-late 1990s R&D investment in Smart Antenna technology has been quietly but dynamically moving forward in Japan, in the US, and in Europe. Japan, especially, has linked the development of smart antenna technology to the ultimate success of 4G cellular systems. In other words, no Smart Antennas, no WIMAX, no fully utilized 3G, and no 4G. Smart Antenna systems can be utilized by all major wireless protocols and standards, both analog and digital. It is this ability that gives existing markets the ability to expand into new products and services, and companies that make use of wireless upgrades, whether in communications, local loop applications, high or low rate, short or long range systems, a significant competitive advantage.
System requirements essential for 4G:
- Energy efficiency (Greater power capacity)
- Greater efficiency
- Higher data rates
- Higher bandwidths need higher frequencies (because of higher propagation and circuit losses)
- Interference suppression
- Multipath mitigation (no co-channel interference, ‘fast fading’, phase cancellation or delay spread i.e. multiple reflections)
2.6 Smart Antenna Benefits:
- Digital signal processing capability
- Signal and Power efficiency (beam focused, lower energy requirement ,longer battery life, smaller & lighter form factor, reduced cost)
- Interference negation (reduced distance and increased load capacity ,Space Division ,Multiple Access frequency reuse, improved capacity)
- Spatial Diversity (minimized fading, multipath rejection, higher bit rate)
Smart Antenna Mode Description
Smart Antennas exist in two modes: Switched Beam and Adaptive Array. Switched Beam antennas, also known as Phased Array, Steered Beam or Pencil Beam are modifications of current cellular beam systems as add-on or appliqués to an existing antenna installation. Dense narrow beams allow the user to rely on low interference probability at higher transfer rates and greater range. This microsector configuration is passive; multiple antennas supplies a specific area with a dense array beams and signal strength tuning according to need for the individual user.
Adaptive Array antenna systems are less hardware intensive. This means that Adaptive Array beams follow the individual user, transmitting an infinite number of signal combinations in real-time, over a wider area than Switched Beam systems, with more power and less interference given that its focus on the user is much more narrow. SDMA, also known as MIMO, is the most efficient method of possible Smart Antenna technologies, providing send and receive at both base station and mobile units. Hence MIMO offers highly sophisticated algorithms and economical use of hardware that allows for rapid frequency reuse and the ability to concentrate the beam pattern in high-use areas.
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