Beamfor

ming
Intro to on-chip
and antenna
based
beamforming
Date: May 8th,2014
ID: 008644922
EE255 Professor John
Kim

Beamforming is a signal processing technique used to manipulate phase and

power of the signals at each transmitter in order to create constructive and
destructive interference in the wavefront. Beamforming is most commonly known
in todays 802.11 wireless technologies, radar, sonar, radio, and seismology. The
basic idea behind beamforming is controlling output characteristics of each
transmitter within a transmitter array so that the overall signal is optimized to reach
the client. There are many companies that are selling this technology including
Cisco, Ruckus, Netgear, and Intel. From an engineering and consumers perspective
it is important to understand the benefits and weaknesses with beamforming so
widely advertised in consumer electronics.
There are a few main goals to satisfy for achieving beamforming. The
beamformer needs directivity, which means that it is a spatial filter and can be used
to increase SNR by ignoring noise outside the directions of interest. Side lobe
control is also needed to balance the main lobe directivity. In order to direct the
beamformer we need to have beam steering in which the beamformer is
electronically steered. By keeping these key points in mind we can understand the
challenges and usefulness in implementing beamforming.
To understand beamforming we need to first familiarize ourselves with
phased array also known as adaptive beamforming. A phased array is an array of
antennas where the phases of the signals feeding the antennas are varied in ways
to generate a radiation pattern in which a desired direction is reinforced and
undesired directions suppressed. Although phased arrays can generate a certain
radiation pattern, there are also consequences in real applications that do not
suppress all unwanted signals. Using on-chip beamforming based on multiple
omnidirectional antennas, the antenna sends out unwanted beams called black
lobes. The black lobes can negatively impact the system because beams going in
stray directions may cause co-channel interference and impede the expected signal.
In figure 1, we can see that there is still a lot of wasted RF energy and added
interference when connecting signals to one client.

Figure 1: Chip based performance [3]

To find a solution around the unwanted black lobes, another method used is to
overlap direction antennas to effectively cover 360 degrees. The directional
antennas can detect clients that are within range and turn on unused antennas.
Chip-based approach does not give the flexibility to shut down the antenna because
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they are omnidirection and must increase transmission power in all directions. In
figure 2, it is apparent that the AP (Access point) is clearly biased towards the client
and is suppressing unwanted signals by turning off selected antennas that do not
detect the client.

Figure 2: Direction antenna based beamforming [3]

Beamforming has multiple scheme types that affect the calculation process
of the channel. There are three types of schemes namely, delay-and-sum, nullsteering, and frequency domain beamformer. The simplest is the delay-and-sum
beamformer and it utilizes multiple antennas to receive the signal wavefront. When
the wave arrives perpendicular all the receivers will obtain the wave at the same
time and sum them. When the wave arrives at a different angle, the wave front will
be received by each antenna at different times. The output of the antenna is
created by summing all the signals and the maximum output amplitude is achieved
when the signal originates from a source perpendicular to the array, hence the
signal arrives at the same time. The signals that arrive perpendicular to the array is
highly correlated in time and reinforce each other. In figure 3, when the angle is 0
degrees figure 4 shows that the most potent signal is at 0 degrees.

Figure 3: Delay-and-Sum beamformer [1]

Figure 4:Beam pattern of delay-and-sum [1]

The delay and sum beamformer is a very simple scheme, but you can only
use beamforming for signals that are perpendicular to the array. Null steering is an
alternative to allow beamformed signals without being perpendicular to the array.
The idea is simple and involves adding a steering delay stage to the process before
summation of the wave. The signals are given appropriate weights such that the
frequency domain output of the weight sum produces a zero result, hence null
steering. The signals from a particular direction are now aligned through a delay
process to steer the main lobe direction of the beamformed signal. In frequency
beamforming, the directional spectrum of a signal can be shown by Fourier analysis.
By using frequency dependent beamforming we can manipulate the pattern and
lobes by increasing the frequency. Consequently this may cause development of
unwanted side lobes from various angles. Spatial filtering is involved in removing
these unwanted side lobes.[2]

Figure 5: Steering process [1]

In practice, we can see that beamforming is very diverse because there are
many methods to manipulate the patterns and energies of the signals. Each
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application may use a different beamforming pattern. In 802.11, companies may

have use for side lobes sending signals to multiple clients in different directions.
Other applications with sound may want energies focused in one direction to spy on
conversations. The application is very diverse and requires adaptive filtering
processes to provide the optimal output.

Bibliography
1) Greensted, Andrew, Dr. "Delay Sum Beamforming." The Lab Book Pages. Dr.
Andrew Greensted, n.d. Web.
27 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.labbookpages.co.uk/audio/beamforming/delaySum.html>. Discussion
about beamforming methods
2) "Spatial Signal Processing (Beamforming)." N.d. PDF file. Discussion
about multple beamforming
processes
3) Winkle, William Van. "Beamforming: The Best Wifi You've Never Seen."
Tom's Hardware. N.p., 17 Aug.
2009. Web. 17 Aug. 2009. <http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/
beamforming-wifi-ruckus,2390-5.html>.