Deterministic beamforming for enhanced vertical sectorization and array pattern compensation

The paper studies deterministic beamforming for advanced base station antenna technologies including vertical sectorization and array pattern compensation. First, an optimized vertical sectorization beamforming design in terms of low inter-vertical sector interference is proposed. The performance gains in terms of the users´ sum rate of the proposed technique against unoptimized vertical sectorization in a simple multi-user system scenario are shown. The work also investigates certain novel beampattern recovery approaches studying the capabilities of advanced base station antenna systems to partially compensate for the distortion caused to the array diagram upon transmit branch failure. The schemes are applied to a specific active antenna product architecture suitable for base stations with advanced beamforming capabilities yet with low hardware complexity and cost footprint.