Advanced Antenna Engineering

Antenna for Software

Defined Radio
PRESENTED BY : N.V. SRI VAMSI (20MCE0019)
AVIK DAS (20MCE0006)
SOWMIYA S (20MCE0027)
Introduction
• Software-defined Radio (SDR) is a programmable transceiver with
the capability of operating various wireless communication protocols
without the need to change or update the hardware
• It is a radio communication system where components that have
been traditionally implemented in hardware are instead
implemented by means of software on a personal computer or
embedded systems.
SDR
•A basic SDR system may consist of a personal computer equipped
with a sound card, or other analog-to-digital converter, preceded by
some form of RF front end.
• Significant amounts of signal processing are handed over to the
general-purpose processor, rather than being done in special-
purpose hardware.
•Such a design produces a radio which can receive and transmit
widely different radio protocols based solely on the software used.
SDR Architecture
Antenna
•SDR platforms usually employ several antennas to cover a wide
range of frequency bands.
•Antennas are often referred to as “intelligent” or “smart” due to
their ability to select a frequency band and adapt with mobile
tracking or interference cancellation.
• In the case of SDRs, an antenna usually needs to meet a certain list
of requirements such as self-adaptation (i.e., flexibility to tuning to
several bands), self-alignment (i.e., beamforming capability), and
self-healing.
RF Front end
•This is a RF circuitry where the main function is to transmit and
receive the signal at various operating frequencies.
•Its other function is to change the signal to/from the Intermediate
Frequency (IF).
•The process of operation is divided into two, depending on the
direction of the signal
Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog Conversion
•The DAC is responsible for producing the analog signal that will be
transmitted from the digital samples.
•The ADC resides on the receiver side and is an essential component
in radio receivers.
• The ADC is responsible for converting continuous-time signals to
discrete-time, binary-coded signals.
Digital Front End
• The Digital Front End performs two functions:
• Sample Rate Conversion (SRC), which is a functionality that converts
the sampling from one rate to another. This is necessary since the
two communication parties must be synchronized.
• Channelization, which includes up/down conversion in the
transmitter and receiver side, respectively. It also includes channel
filtering, where channels that are divided by frequency are extracted.
Signal Processing
•Signal processing operations, such as encoding/decoding,
interleaving/deinterleaving, modulation/demodulation, and
scrambling/ descrambling are performed in this block.
•Encoding for the channel serves as an error correcting code.
• Specifically, the encoded signal includes redundancy that is utilized
by the receiver’s decoder to re-construct the original signal from the
corrupted received signal.
Reconfigurable Antenna or SDR Antenna
•A reconfigurable antenna is an antenna capable of modifying its frequency and
radiation properties dynamically, in a controlled and reversible manner.
•In order to provide a dynamic response, reconfigurable antennas integrate an
inner mechanism that enable the intentional redistribution of the RF currents
over the antenna surface and produce reversible modifications of its properties.
•Reconfigurable antennas differ from smart antennas because the
reconfiguration mechanism lies inside the antenna, rather than in an
external beamforming network.
•The reconfiguration capability of reconfigurable antennas is used to maximize
the antenna performance in a changing scenario or to satisfy changing operating
requirements.
Reconfigurable antenna
The reconfiguration capability of reconfigurable antennas is used to maximize the antenna
performance in a changing scenario or to satisfy changing operating requirements.
Types of antenna reconfiguration

•Reconfigurable antennas can be classified according to the

antenna parameter that is dynamically adjusted
•Frequency Reconfiguration
•Radiation pattern Reconfiguration
•Polarization Reconfiguration
•Compound Reconfiguration
Frequency Reconfiguration
•Frequency reconfigurable antennas can adjust their frequency of
operation dynamically.
•They are particularly useful in situations where several
communications systems converge because the multiple antennas
required can be replaced by a single reconfigurable antenna.
• Frequency reconfiguration is generally achieved by physical or
electrical modifications to the antenna dimensions using RF-
switches, impedance loading or tunable materials.
Radiation Pattern Reconfiguration
•Radiation pattern reconfigurability is based on the
intentional modification of the spherical distribution of
the radiation pattern.
• Beam steering is the most extended application and
consists of steering the direction of maximum radiation to
maximize the antenna gain in a link with mobile devices.
•Pattern reconfigurable antennas are usually designed using
movable/rotatable structures or switchable and reactively-
loaded parasitic elements
Polarization Reconfiguration
•Polarization reconfigurable antennas are capable of
switching between different polarization modes.
•The capability of switching between horizontal, vertical and
circular polarizations can be used to reduce polarization
mismatch losses in portable devices.
•Polarization reconfigurability can be provided by changing
the balance between the different modes of a multimode
structure.
Compound Reconfiguration
•Compound reconfiguration is the capability of simultaneously tuning
several antenna parameters, for instance frequency and radiation
pattern.
•The most common application of compound reconfiguration is the
combination of frequency agility and beam-scanning to provide
improved spectral efficiencies.
• Compound reconfigurability is achieved by combining in the same
structure different single-parameter reconfiguration techniques or by
reshaping dynamically a pixel surface.
Reconfiguration Techniques
Electrically Reconfigurable Antennas
•Electronic switching components such as RF-MEMS, PIN
diodes, varactor diodes or FETs are used in electrically
reconfigurable antennas for surface current distributions by
altering the antenna radiating structures or radiating edges.
•The integration of switches into the antenna structure
makes it easier for designers to reach the desired
reconfigurable functionality
Optically Reconfigurable Antennas
•Optically reconfigurable antenna comes under the class of radiating
elements that has the capability of changing the radiation properties with
the use of switches which may be optical activation of silicon switches of
reactive elements.
•The metal wires that may interfere with the antenna’s radiation
characteristics can be eliminated in case of optically controlled devices.
• The use of additional metallic microstrip or wired biasing lines makes the
antenna complex and interference among the required radiation pattern
makes the major issues in case of DC controlled microstrip antennas, can
be overcome using optically controlled reconfigurable antenna
Mechanical/Physically Reconfigurable Antennas
•Antennas can also be reconfigured by physically altering the
antenna radiating structure.
•The tuning of the antenna is achieved by a structural
modification of the antenna radiating parts.
•The importance of this technique is that it does not relay on any
switch mechanisms, biasing lines or optical fiber/laser diode
integration.
•This technique depends on the limitation of the device to be
physically reconfigured.
Reconfigurable Antennas Based on Smart Materials
•Antennas are also made reconfigurable through a change in
the substrate characteristics by using materials such as
liquid crystals, dielectric fluids, ferrites or metasurfaces.
•The change in the material is achieved by a change in the
relative electric permittivity or magnetic permeability.
Advantages of Reconfigurable Antennas
•Reconfigurable antennas can support more than one wireless standard, and deliver the
same performance as that of multiple antennas. Hence, reconfigurable antennas have
the following advantages:
i) Low cost, low volume, simple integration, and good isolation between different
wireless standards
ii) low front-end processing that means no need for front-end filtering and good out-of-
band rejection
iii) best candidate for software-defined radios which can adapt to new surroundings
iv) change functionality as per the mission changes, act as a single element or as an
array, providing narrow band or wideband as per the requirements.
Applications
•The reconfigurable antennas are used in
•Cognitive radio systems
•MIMO systems
• Satellite communications
• Biomedical applications
• Military applications
•Industrial applications.
THANK YOU