Analog Beamforming vs Digital Beamforming

| difference between Analog Beamforming and

Digital Beamforming

The beamforming is used for directional signal transmission and reception. It has provision to
change both amplitude and phase which helps in power variation as well as beam steering in
the desired directions respectively. The antenna arrays with separate provision for
amplitude/phase variation is used in beamforming for both the transmission as well as
reception.

In analog beamforming, amplitude/phase variation is applied to analog signal at transmit

end. The signals from different antennas are summed up before the ADC conversion in analog
beamforming at receive end.
In digital beamforming, amplitude/phase variation (Wk) is applied to digital signal before
DAC conversion at transmit end. The reverse process is done after ADC & DDC operations
are performed. As shown the received signals from antennas are first passed from ADC
converters and digital down converters (i.e. DDCs) before summation operation.
BEAMFORMING is technique that focuses the transmitted energy into specific direction.

-Increase energy to specific user

-Reduce interference elsewhere.

Beam forming application:

-Radar:Phased array Radar :air traffic control, synthetic aperture Radar.

-SONAR/source localization and classification.

-Communication: Smart antenna systems: Directional transmission and reception, sector broadcast in
satellite communication.

-Imaging: ultrasonic optical,tompgraphy

-Geophysical Explorations:

-Astrophysical Explorations:

-Biomedical:
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