The Development of Smart Antennas in Software Defined Radio
Smart antenna technology first emerged in the 1960s, with its research focused on radar antenna arrays, aiming to enhance radar system performance and electronic countermeasure capabilities. In recent years, with the rapid development of microcomputers and digital signal processing (DSP) technology, the processing power of DSP chips has continuously increased, and their cost has gradually become acceptable for modern communication systems.
Furthermore, as the radio spectrum for mobile communications becomes increasingly congested, eliminating the effects of Multiple Access Interference (MAI), Co-Channel Interference (CCI), and multipath fading has become a primary concern for improving mobile communication system performance. Smart antennas utilize modern digital signal processing techniques and select appropriate adaptive algorithms to dynamically form spatially directional beams. This allows the main lobe of the antenna array pattern to align with the direction of arrival of the user's signal, while the side lobes or nulls align with the direction of arrival of interfering signals. Consequently, mobile user signals are fully utilized, and interference signals are canceled out or suppressed to the greatest extent possible.
The core of Software Defined Radio (SDR) lies in using high-speed digital signal processors to perform all digital operations after intermediate frequency (IF) sampling. The programmability of DSPs enables the flexible and personalized configuration of SDR. Therefore, the combination of a fixed antenna array with a digital signal processor forms a smart antenna capable of dynamically configuring antenna characteristics.
Unlike conventional sector antennas and antenna diversity methods, smart antennas can provide a very narrow directional beam for each user. This confines signal transmission and reception to a limited directional area, making full use of the signal transmission power and reducing the electromagnetic pollution and mutual interference caused by omnidirectional signal transmission.
Smart antennas introduce the concept of Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA). This means that even with the same time slot, frequency, or address code, users can still be distinguished based on their different signal propagation paths. SDMA is a new method for increasing channel capacity and is fully compatible with other multiple access schemes (FDMA, TDMA, CDMA), enabling the implementation of combined multiple access methods.
The Development of Smart Antennas in Software Defined Radio
by sdruav.com | Sep 28, 2025 | Articles
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