Subscriber based smart antenna for wireless mobile networks: design, algorithm, and field test results

The use of smart antennas has recently been considered for wireless mobile networks such as third generation (3G) wireless systems. Until now, smart antenna designs and algorithms have almost exclusively been focused on base stations. In this paper, we present a novel smart antenna technology specially designed for mobile terminals to receive and transmit desired signals, called herein subscriber based smart antenna (SBSA). The SBSA can provide multiple directional beams as well as an omni beam. Its algorithm is based on a history of measurements from the individual beams, which can reflect a dominant angle of arrival at a mobile terminal The SBSA is low-cost and easy to implement. A series of field tests were conducted over a real cdma2000® network using cdma2000 phones equipped with InterDigitals Trident SBSA9 in order to validate algorithm assumptions and provide potential SBSA benefits. The results show that the SBSA can provide up to 3 dB link gain over traditional omni antennas, which theoretically translates to 50% coverage improvement as well as increased capacity and data rates. In addition, an SBSA equipped mobile requires up to about 2 dB less transmit power than a traditional omni antenna equipped mobile.