2017 International Conference on Innovations in information Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS)

Beam Steering in Antenna

Ankit Singh, Ankit Kumar, Abhishek Ranjan, Arvind Kumar, Arun Kumar
Amity Institute of Telecom Engineering and Management
Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida-201313, India
ankitss6695@gmail.com, ankitsinha246@gmail.com, abhishekranjan4444@gmail.com

Abstract— In this paper, we have presented the process of providing ‘n’ equally spaced directional beams and an
beam steering and its advantages. Nowadays compact sized low omnimode in case of cylindrical antennas. They are also able to
profile antennas with planer structures and low fabrication cost provide limited angular coverage of around 45 degrees
have become essential. Therefore the antennas need to have providing ‘m’ equally spaced directional beams along with a 90
enhanced gain and steerable radiation patterns. Therefore, beam
degrees wide sectored beam. In addition, we have also tried to
steerable antennas have become very popular in modern day
antenna propagation. Beam steering technique reduces show the ability of smart beam steering antennas to generate
interference, saves power, increases gain and directivity of the well formed beam patterns when it is desired to cover only a
micro-strip antenna. Beam steering antennas are defined so that very few amount of areas. For example, a Fig. of 8 directivity
the antennas can be able to form narrow directional beams with up and down street. Although we have not covered the MIMO
relatively low side lobes so that the beams can be electronically type antennas but smart beam steering antennas can support
steered towards an intended target of transmission and reception. MIMO type operation through polarization diversity with the
Beam steering antennas provide beam forming gain as opposed to help of dual slant or V/H operation. This can also be done by
diversity gain which is obtained from using MIMO type smart using multiple large numbers of smart beam steering antennas.
antennas.
Since dual smart beam steering antennas provide channel
Index Terms— Micro-strip antennas, Directivity, Gain, Return diversity hence it also becomes possible that the beam steering
loss, Interference. antennas get to adapt in varieties of conditions such as
multipath propagation and LOS.
I.INTRODUCTION Many Research groups are actively working in the area of
beam steering in antenna and the different methodology. [1-2]
A transducer which is intended to transmit and get M.Fallahpur, M.T. Ghasr and R Zoughi proposed about
electromagnetic waves alongside the transformation of electric Miniaturized Reconfigurable multiband antenna For multi radio
signal to electromagnetic waves and the other way around is Wireless Communication.[3-4] Zivin Park , Jenshan Lin
named as Antenna. Antenna assumes a lead part in remote proposed about a Beam-steering Micro-strip Antenna for Non-
correspondence framework. In addition, it additionally has the Contact vital detection of sign.[5-6] Y. Yusuf and X. Gong
property of reversibility which implies it can work both as worked on a low-cost patch antenna phased array with analog
transmitter and receiver. In Wireless correspondence a small beam steering using reactive loading and mutual coupling
antenna gives a unidirectional radiation example to work for respectively. [7-8] Iymeh Uchendu and James Kelly did the
short profiles antennas in today's era. Planar antenna have survey of Beam Steering Techniques Available for Millimeter
gigantically picked up prevalence because of the expanding Applications of Wave. [9-11] Taeksoo Ji, Hargsoon
interest for littler and low profiled antenna these days. Outline Yoon,Member, K.Abraham, Vijay K.Varadan proposed about
system of steerable reception apparatus incorporates the the Ku-Band Antenna Array Feed Network Distribution with
examination of micro-strip antenna, electromagnetic shaft Ferroelectric Phase Shifters on Silicon.[12-13] H. Mosalaei,
hypothesis, and the bar directing methods. Design procedure of and K. Sarrabandi, proposed about magneto dielectrics in
steerable antenna includes the investigation of micro-strip electromagnetics: its concept and application.[14-16] H. Attia,
antenna, electromagnetic beam theory, and the beam steering L. Yousef, M. M. Bait-Suwalam, M. Said Boybay and O. M.
techniques. They mitigate interference by channeling the Ramahi worked on on analytical model for calculation of the
antenna’s radiation to the direction of interest. A few systems radiation field of Micro-strip antenna with artificial magnetic
have been utilized to execute procedure of beam steering super-strates.Theory and Experiment. [17-19] R. Camblor, S.
throughout the years, the majority of which accomplishes Ver Hoeye, G. Hotopan, C. Vazquez, M. Femandez, aF. Heras
directing to the detriment of antenna execution. Beam steering worked on the design of A Sub millimeter Micro-strip array for
procedure gives the capacity to separate between the coveted Beam Scanning Application
signs and obstruction signals (jammers) and suppress them. By
performing beam steering in antenna, we tend to increase the II.THEORETICAL MODEL
gain of antenna and to a very large extent we try to remove any In our research, we have performed beam steering in
kind of interference. Typically a beam steerable antenna is able micro-strip planar antennas. T here are both circular as well as
to provide us with a full 360 degrees of angular coverage rectangular antennas present but we have chosen the

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 2017 International Conference on Innovations in information Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS)

rectangular micro-strip antennas. The main reason behind this population of chromosomes, pc and pm. High mutation rates
is that the circular micro-strip antennas are way far better than ruin and destroy the characteristic performances of the genetic
rectangular one. Their gain and directivity is well produced as algorithm. Fitness values refer to the correlation between the
compared to the rectangular antenna. Hence, we have different desired beams which are to be radiated. In our
performed beam steering in the rectangular micro strip antenna project, we have normalized the fitness values where higher
so that its directivity and gain can be improved up to a very fitness values refer to the closeness of optimized patterns to
large extent. the desired patterns. We have performed the above said beam
Antenna Type: steering technique by using the MATLAB 2014 Ra version.
The geometry of the rectangular periodic array of Nx * Nz We have basically performed the beam steering by changing
infinitesimal z-directed dipoles with unit current amplitudes in the direction of the main lobe of the antenna within the x-z
Beam steering. plane only as shown below in Fig. 2.
In this present research, we have also aligned as well as
realigned the directional beam of smart beam steering antenna
(360 degrees FoV) towards any target HR-BS or HR-RS in real
time in order to maintain the optimal connection. The
directional gain has produced higher gain/link budget as
compared to the omni-directional alternatives. We have done
this because this will generate less co-network interference and
is also very less susceptible to the other sources of
interferences. Apart from this, we have also aligned the smart
beam steering antennas much more rapidly as compared to a
directional antenna using manual and mechanical actuation
which allowed our communication link to occur more rapidly
and fast operationally. This rapid deployment capability
provides critical time savings in emergency and mission critical
scenarios.
Fig. 1. Rectangular micro-strip patch antenna
We have also worked on HR-BS deployment where the
smart beam steering antennas are deployed at the HR-BS to
communicate with other network nodes such as HR-RS and
HR-MS. Since, the smart beam steering antennas support very
high speed beam steering therefore, we have done multiplexing
of high gain directional beams between target network nodes
on a sub-frame by sub-frame basis. As in the earlier case also,
the resulting benefits include improved link budget and receive
sensitivity, plus improved interference rejection and a reduction
in the levels of co-network interference has been generated.

Fig. 2. Main lobe directivity in the x-z plane

In the beam steering technique, what we have done is that

we have changed the direction of the radiation pattern of the
antenna. The main reason behind changing the direction of the
radiation pattern is to get the antenna output in the desired
direction. We have reduced the gap between the L-plane and
H-plane (L-H plane). In our proposed approach, we have
III.RESULT AND DISCUSSION:
mainly focused on the deflection of antenna to very large
extent from the bore sight by using a simple and inexpensive
method. In the cases of larger antennas, it becomes a bit
Fig. 3. Rough sketch of beam steering
difficult and expensive as well to steer the beam by more than
a few bandwidths. This technique was developed with a
In the above Fig. 3, we can see that the direction of main
particular reference of the beam steering requirements of
lobe is varied up to 30 degrees and then up to 330 degrees. The
Direct Broadcast and three important steps in Genetic
basic principle of beam steering is that the direction of main
Algorithm, which are 1) Selection 2) Recombination and 3)
lobe is changed continuously as per the requirement. The
Mutation. The performance of genetic algorithm is determined
direction in which we want to receive the signal from the
by several factors such as control parameters and fitness
antenna, the main lobe is moved in that very particular
functions. Control parameters include the size of the

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 2017 International Conference on Innovations in information Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS)

direction. This variation in the direction of the main lobe of the direction of the radiation pattern of the antenna and hence in
antenna is achieved by changing the direction of the radiation this way the gain of the antenna also increases. We also
pattern. observed that high levels of gain was obtained that can lead to
enhanced link budgets which may include higher data rates and
increased range of communication. As we can understand that
if the gain at the output of the antenna has increased, this
simply means that the return loss has decreased to a great
extent. We observed that, the return loss of the micro strip
antenna which was -42 earlier has reduced to -53 once we
performed beam steering in the antenna. The losses due to
mismatch between transmitter and antenna has also been
decreased, I*I*R losses have been reduced. Therefore, by
altering the direction of main lobe as well as radiation pattern,
we increased gain of the antenna while reducing the return loss
of the same. Directivity of an antenna always depends upon the
radiation power which means that at which angle we are
rotating the main lobe of the antenna which describes that at
Fig. 4. Phased antenna array set-up
what angle we are rotating the direction of the radiation pattern
of the antenna. In Fig. 6, an idea of normalized radiation
III.RESULT AND DISCUSSION pattern in rectangular micro strip patch antenna is shown.
In our project, as mentioned earlier, we are using micro
strip patch antenna of rectangular shape and design. The
geometry of the rectangular periodic array is of Nx cross Nz
infinitesimal z-directed dipoles with unit current amplitude in
beam steering is shown in Fig. 5 below, where the rectangular
array is comprised of Nx line arrays shifted by dx along the x-
axis each containing Nz dipoles along the z-axis separated by
dz.


Fig. 6. Normalized radiation pattern in micro strip antenna

Fig. 5. Geometry of the rectangular array After beam steering, we observed that the directivity of the
antenna has also improved. The main lobe of the antenna can
The dimensions of the rectangular micro strip patch be rotated to lot many different angles which as not possible in
antennas are determined by the operating frequency of the earlier cases where we didn’t perform beam steering.
antenna, the relative dielectric constant and the thickness of the Directivity (-90, +90, 0.1, 180, fr, width, Leff, d). Smart beam
substrate material. The minimum frequency at which we are steering antennas can be steered in any direction at high
operating our antenna is 35 MHz while the maximum speeds and also in real time that helps in the allowance of
frequency up to which we have operated our antenna is 45 network configuration along with fast and easy link
MHz hence the operating frequency of the antenna in the beam establishment. Apart from the above explained results, beam
steering technique ranges from 35 MHZ to 45 MHz sharp. steering is also done in order to reduce the interference
The main purpose of performing beam steering in antenna problems. Due to the combination of narrow beams, low side
is to increase the output gain of the antenna. In our project, we lobes and selectable nulls, smart beam steering antennas
observed that the gain of the antenna before was 1.25 but this reduce the vulnerability of the network to interference which is
gain increased up to 1.76 after beam steering was performed. caused by co-network interference, cross-network interference
Since, during beam steering the main lobe of the micro strip and hostile jamming for example, terrorist jamming. A great
antenna that we are using is directed in that direction only in amount of interference is rejected due to beam steering. The
which we want the output and this is achieved by changing the generation of directional beams is the main reason of the

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 2017 International Conference on Innovations in information Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS)

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