Abstract
Multi-Antenna communication techniques are an efficient and relatively simple approach for the performance improvement of wireless communication systems. However, the direct application of multi-antenna techniques to an aerial communication system is not always feasible due to the constraints induced by the aerial platforms. Reconfigurable intelligent antenna technologies could provide an efficient solution to these problems and thus they are considered as ideal candidates for adaption in the aerial communication platforms that will be used in the 5G and beyond communication networks. In this paper, a joint Tx-Rx beamforming with beam selection and combining technique is proposed for improving the performance of an aerial communication system supported by electronically steerable antenna arrays. The main idea of the proposed scheme is to select, using an SNR maximization criterion, a pair of beam patterns between each RF chain of the ground station and the aerial platform, and combine the received SNRs under the maximal ratio principle. Initially, an analytical stochastic framework has been developed that is based on a Markov chain model, which is used to investigate the statistics of the received SNR. Then, an implementation of the novel beamforming and pattern adaptation scheme is presented, with the use of Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array Radiators (ESPAR), properly designed for Ground Station to UAV links. In addition, a realistic simulator is also developed with proper channel model selection, by the aid of which, the performance of the proposed scheme has been evaluated in conjunction with the extracted analytical results.
Highlights
The generation non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) are expected to be largely based on High or Low Altitude Platforms (HAPs/LAPs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
This paper investigates the performance gains provided by the use of reconfigurable pattern antenna technologies
The analysis is divided into two main sections: 1) the analytical evaluation and stochastic analysis of a low complexity antenna technique, that uses two radio frequency (RF) chains and a set of available patterns to gradually and systematically adapt to the channel; 2) a system configuration that can implement such a system using electronically steerable antennas with the use of a dynamic adaptation/beamforming scheme
Summary
The generation non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) are expected to be largely based on High or Low Altitude Platforms (HAPs/LAPs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Various methods for achieving diversity exist including: space, angle, polarization, frequency, multipath, and time In this context, antenna or beam selection Molisch et al (2005), Karamalis et al (2006), Bai et al (2011), has been proposed in wireless systems in order to exploit the advantages of diversity, while keeping the hardware complexity to a minimum. Pattern reconfigurable antenna arrays have been proposed for further improving the performance of wireless communication systems. A joint Tx-Rx beamforming with beam selection and combining technique is proposed for improving the performance of an aerial communication system supported by electronically steerable antenna arrays.
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