Analog Beamforming Research Articles

Low-resolution phase shifter-based hybrid precoding for mmWave massive MIMO

As the demand for high-capacity and energy-efficient wireless communications grows, the exploration of cost-effective and power-optimized hybrid digital-analog beamforming techniques for millimeter-wave massive MIMO systems has gained substantial traction. Adopting low-resolution phase shifters offers a more practical solution in terms of reducing power consumption and implementation costs. We investigate hybrid beamforming strategies for mmWave massive MIMO systems that employ low-resolution phase shifters, with a specific focus on designing and optimizing the analog beamforming component. To exploit the full potential of analog phase shifter network (APSN) in mmWave massive MIMO system while maintaining low-power consumption, we propose a two-layer APSN with low-resolution PSs to replace the conventional single-layer APSN with high-resolution PSs. Under the constraints imposed by the two-layer APSN hardware architecture, we propose a two-level codebook structure and an adaptive-weighted cross-entropy optimization algorithm that offers superior performance while substantially reducing the computational burden compared to the conventional cross-entropy optimization algorithm. We further develop two alternative schemes through the maximal gain harvest method to reduce complexity. We also investigate the case that only one steering vector is shared in the inner beamformer and present two low-complexity beamforming algorithms. Through simulations, the proposed two-layer APSN structure and the proposed algorithms have been shown to outperform existing methods, with notable effectiveness in scenarios where low-resolution phase shifters are utilized.

An Analog Beamforming Strategy Based on Statistical Channel Information for Recharging Wireless Powered Sensor Networks

An Analog Beamforming Strategy Based on Statistical Channel Information for Recharging Wireless Powered Sensor Networks

Hybrid Beam-Forming Techniques for 6G Terahertz Communication: Challenges

The terahertz band is the main pillar of 6G wireless communication system. It is difficult to meet the high data rate of 1Tbps by millimeter frequency support systems. The terahertz band suffers huge propagation loss limiting wireless distance. Terahertz band imposes ultra massive multiple input multiple output antenna (UM-MIMO) systems which produce high array gain with narrow beamforming. The conventional methods for MIMO beamforming are Analog and Digital beamforming. The fully digital beamforming methods utilize dedicated structure of DAC/ADC and RF chains. These structures increase hardware complexity and are power hungry. The analog beamforming structures utilize ADC/DAC with phase shifters with less hardware complexity but support less data rates. As a result, a hybrid beamforming method can be adapted for UM-MIMO systems. This paper investigates challenges in hybrid beamforming architecture which will address the low spatial degrees of freedom (SDoF) limitation in Terahertz (THz) Communication. The flexible hardware connections are proposed, in order to switch the system in an adaptive manner so as to minimize the power requirements.

Spectral Efficiency Maximization for Mixed-Structure Cognitive Radio Hybrid Wideband Millimeter-Wave Transceivers in Relay-Assisted Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Systems.

This paper proposes a cognitive radio network (CRN)-based hybrid wideband precoding for maximizing spectral efficiency in millimeter-wave relay-assisted multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The underlying problem is NP-hard and non-convex due to the joint optimization of hybrid processing components and the constant amplitude constraint imposed by the analog beamformer in the radio frequency (RF) domain. Furthermore, the analog beamforming solution common to all sub-carriers adds another layer of design complexity. Two hybrid beamforming architectures, i.e., mixed and fully connected ones, are taken into account to tackle this problem, considering the decode-and-forward (DF) relay node. To reduce the complexity of the original optimization problem, an attempt is made to decompose it into sub-problems. Leveraging this, each sub-problem is addressed by following a decoupled design methodology. The phase-only beamforming solution is derived to maximize the sum of spectral efficiency, while digital baseband processing components are designed to keep interference within a predefined limit. Computer simulations are conducted by changing system parameters under different accuracy levels of channel-state information (CSI), and the obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. Additionally, the mixed structure shows better energy efficiency performance compared to its counterparts and outperforms benchmarks.

The main directions of enhancement of digital antenna arrays

The development of modern radio electronic systems causes an increase in the requirements for the parameters of antenna devices (AU) and causes the transition from previously used mirror antennas and passive phased array antennas (FAA) to active FAA (AFAA), the considerable advantage of which is a significant reduction in energy losses of transmitted and received signals by reducing the distance of the low-noise amplifier input and output of power amplifier to the antenna element. Further development of the AU is the transition from AFAA with analog beamforming to digital antenna arrays (DAR) with digital beamforming, the advantages of which are due to the possibility of forming multibeam receiving and transmitting radiation patterns with independent control of the direction and shape of the beams, as well as the possibility of flexible change of operating modes. The use of a DAR with two-dimensional electronic scanning provides a significant increase in the efficiency of radio-electronic systems. Thus, their use in radar provides a gain in the efficiency of using the time, energy, frequency and spatial resources of radar with CAR up to 13 times compared with radar with passive FAA and AFAA with one-dimensional scanning. The disadvantages of the DAR are the high cost and increased energy consumption due to the installation of active elements in each transceiver channel, as well as the long time required to create new products, associated with a large amount of software and a complex structure for building a CAR. To overcome these disadvantages, manufacturers of antenna arrays and developers of the radio-electronic element base are creating new technical solutions. The main directions of development of technologies for the production of DAR functional devices that reduce the cost and reduce the time needed to create new products are shown: the development of common modules that allow you to create scalable DAR, increasing the integration of microwave monolithic integrated circuits with the placement of the maximum number of transceiver channels on one chip, increasing the integration of ASIC, including ADCs, DACs and digital signal processing devices, increasing the clock frequencies of digital functional nodes, as well as the development of circuit solutions for building nodes with low energy consumption.

Sub-System Architecture for millimeter-wave massive MIMO systems

In this paper, we study the hybrid beamforming design for millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) systems. The designing of hybrid beamforming for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is tasking since its analog beamforming is shared among all subcarriers. We adopt a two-step technique for designing the analog and digital beamforming separately in order to maximize the average achievable energy and spectral efficiency of frequency-selective mmWave mMIMO-OFDM systems. Firstly, the analog beamforming design is based on the viewpoint of sub-systems (SS) and the goal is to optimize the array gain and radio frequency chains. Secondly, the digital beamforming design is carried out by using the regularized channel diagonalization (RCD) and block diagonalization (BD) solutions. On the other hand, the BD solution is modified for single-user. Thus, we propose the use of SS-RCD for multi-user and SS-BD for single-user hybrid beamforming designs. The solutions provide interference suppression but differ in low-SNR performance when communicating to many mobile users via data streams. Simulation results present that our hybrid beamforming design outperforms several other designs.

Low complexity hybrid beamforming for downlink multi-user MIMO OFDM systems

Hybrid beamforming is critical for massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) to achieve high spectral efficiency at reduced hardware cost. Existing hybrid beamforming schemes either design the analog beamforming and digital beamforming separately, or jointly optimize them through alternating optimization. Such strategies incur non-negligible performance degradation or huge computational complexity in optimization, which is especially evident with the partially connected architecture. In this work, we consider a general downlink multi-user MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system with the hybrid beamforming architecture, where finite-resolution phase shifters are adopted. We propose an efficient beamforming strategy on the sum rate maximization criterion. Rather than eliminating the interference entirely by digital beamforming, we optimize the analog beamforming by considering the interference at the same time. We consider a fixed digital beamforming structure to reduce the overall complexity. Given the fact of finite-resolution phase shifters, the analog beamforming is optimized over discrete phase values. Compared to existing hybrid beamforming designs, the proposed algorithm achieves much improved performance. By applying the average channel covariance to the analog beamforming design, the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is further reduced. Meanwhile, the proposed algorithm is applicable to both fully and partially connected architectures.

Development of a Front End Array for Broadband Phased Array Receiver

The receiver is a signal receiving device placed at the focus of the telescope. In order to improve the observation efficiency, the concept of phased array receiver has been proposed in recent years, which places a small phased array at the focal plane of the reflector, and flexible pattern and beam scanning functions can be achieved through a beamforming network. If combined with the element multiplexing, all beams within the entire field of view can be observed simultaneously to achieve continuous sky coverage. This article focuses on the front-end array of phased array receiver at 0.7–1.8 GHz for QiTai Telescope, and designs a Vivaldi antenna array of PCB structure with dual line polarization. Each polarization antenna is designed to arrange in a rectangle manner by 11 × 10. Based on the simulation results of the focal field, 32, 18, and eight elements were selected to form one beam at 0.7, 1.25, and 1.8 GHz. An analog beamforming network was constructed, and the measured gains of axial beam under uniform weighting were 19.32, 13.72, and 15.22 dBi. Combining the beam scanning method of reflector antenna, the pattern test of different position element sets required for PAF beam scanning was carried out under independent array. The pattern optimization at 1.25 GHz was carried out by weighting method of conjugate field matching. Compared with uniform weighting, the gain, sidelobe level, and main beam direction under conjugate field matching have been improved. Although the above test and simulation results are slightly different, which is related to the passive array and laboratory testing condition, the relevant work has accumulated experience in the development of the front-end array for the phased array receiver, and has good guiding significance for future performance verification after the array is installed on the telescope.

Intra-Beam Interference Mitigation for the Downlink Transmission of the RIS-Assisted Hybrid Millimeter Wave System.

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication systems leverage the directional beamforming capabilities of antenna arrays equipped at the base stations (BS) to counteract the inherent high propagation path loss characteristic of mmWave channels. In downlink mmWave transmissions, i.e., from the BS to users, distinguishing users within the same beam direction poses a significant challenge. Additionally, digital baseband precoding techniques are limited in their ability to mitigate inter-user interference within identical beam directions, representing a fundamental constraint in mmWave downlink transmissions. This study introduces an innovative analog beamforming-based interference mitigation strategy for downlink transmissions in reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted hybrid analog-digital (HAD) mmWave systems. This is achieved through the joint design of analog beamformers and the corresponding coefficients at both the RIS and the BS. We first present derived closed-form approximation expressions for the achievable rate performance in the proposed scenario and establish a stringent upper bound on this performance in a large number of RIS elements regimes. The exclusive use of analog beamforming in the downlink phase allows our proposed transmission algorithm to function efficiently when equipped with low-resolution analog-to-digital/digital-to-analog converters (A/Ds) at the BS. The energy efficiency of the downlink transmission is evaluated through the deployment of six-bit A/Ds and six-bit pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) signals across varying numbers of activated RIS elements. Numerical simulation results validate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithms in comparison to various benchmark schemes.

Parallel- and micro-beamforming challenges in real-time, high-frame-rate, ultrasound imaging

Delay-and-sum beamforming for classic (line-by-line) ultrasound imaging is usually performed in real-time by FPGAs and GPUs. However, when a high-frame-rate (HFR) has to be achieved, beamforming becomes challenging. Here, the echoes following the transmission of multi-line focused beams, plane waves, or diverging waves, must be simultaneously beamformed along multiple view lines. Such parallel beamforming is feasible online when the scanner is endowed with high flexibility and processing power. This talk will show how the FPGAs of the ULA-OP 256, a hardware-based open scanner, were efficiently utilized to enable parallel beamforming at high speed. The talk will also discuss how the data transfer between the scanner boards impacts the frame rate, which actually achieved 4400 frames per second through a new communication topology. The talk will also examine the image quality deterioration emerging when HFR imaging sequences are implemented in probes equipped with a microbeamformer (uB) that was designed for focused beam transmission. Simulations show how the transmitted beamwidth and uB size impact the image contrast and resolution, taking into account that the uB ASIC cannot handle multiple sets of delays and apodization weights after each transmit event. Technological improvements needed in the next generation uBs will be finally discussed.

Energy‐efficient hybrid beamforming for millimeter‐wave‐based massive multiple‐input multiple‐output system

SummaryThe advanced wireless communication system requires abridged energy consumption, enhanced data rate, and good signal coverage. The massive MIMO technology for 5G systems has been developed to accommodate several users simultaneously with superior throughput. The claim for high data rate wireless communication services is expanding quickly as time goes. Thus, the key difficulty is that as the number of users grows, the number of phase shifters grows as well, causing the system to consume more power; as a result, the system's energy efficiency decreases. Hybrid beamforming has recently emerged as an attractive technique for millimeter‐wave (mmWave) communication systems. The analog beamformer in the RF domain and digital beamformer in the baseband are coupled through a minimal number of RF chains in hybrid beamforming architecture. Hybrid beamforming utilizes fewer RF (radio frequency) chains than the total number of antennas to have a lower energy consumption design. The hybrid beamforming for a mmWave‐based massive MIMO system through different phase shifter selection mechanisms is proposed to achieve the highest energy efficiency for mmWave communications systems. The fully connected with phase shifter selection, sub‐connected with phase shifter selection (SPSS), and fully connected and sub‐connected with phase shifter selection with halved and doubled switches are considered for this research. The simulation results show the SPSS with halved switch outperforms on energy efficiency.

A review of beamforming microstrip patch antenna array for future 5G/6G networks

With the increase in demand for high data rates and high bandwidth because of multiple users all over the globe, the technology has moved toward the next-generation of wireless communication. This rapid advancement of wireless communication technologies has led to the emergence of 5G networks, which promise significantly higher data rates, lower latency, and enhanced connectivity. Researchers believe that five essential techniques can enable 5G. Beamforming is one of those essentials, as it plays a vital role in achieving reliable and high-capacity communication. This review article portrays a comprehensive analysis of the 5G beamformer Microstrip Patch Antenna array techniques for communication systems. The paper comprises of a deep overview of the fundamental concepts and principles of beamforming, including analog, hybrid, and digital beamforming techniques. It explores the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and discusses their suitability for 5G applications. An in-depth examination of various beamforming techniques employed in 5G, encompassing traditional beamforming, massive Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output beamforming, hybrid beamforming, and adaptive beamforming. The discussion encompasses the strengths, weaknesses, and performance trade-offs of each technique, along with their applicability in diverse deployment scenarios and applications. The review of multiple couplers that are used for the feeding of the antenna is discussed with included hybrid coupler, Wilkinson power divider, branch line coupler, and butler matrix in beamformer smart antenna for 5G/6G communications. Numerous beamforming techniques are compared based on their merits, demerits, and applications. Moreover, the dielectric substrate utilized to design the beamformer was also reviewed. The findings presented in this paper serve as a valuable resource for the researcher, scholars, and engineers working in the field of 5G wireless communications and antenna designing, facilitating the development and deployment of efficient and robust beamforming solutions for future 5G networks.

LSTM-Aided Selective Beam Tracking in Multi-Cell Scenario for mmWave Wireless Systems

Millimeter wave systems rely on narrow beams (beamforming) and dense cell deployments for reliable communication. Tracking these beams from multiple cells can increase power consumption and signaling overhead. Therefore, a mobile needs to selectively and smartly track beams under power/overhead constraints. In this paper, we propose a fully data-driven, long short-term memory (LSTM)-based, selective link tracking approach. These approaches are developed for both fixed and adaptive power/overhead constraints, which also predict the magnitude of the best performing beam. The algorithms are validated in simulations of a 28GHz 5G New Radio (NR)-like system in an urban area with realistic navigation routes utilizing detailed ray-tracing. The simulations demonstrate that the proposed methods outperform classic and deep reinforcement learning (RL) approaches in terms of tracking accuracy, power saving and overhead for both analog and digital beamforming architectures. We also argue that the prediction of the proposed method can be easily performed on a digital signal processor of a modern chipset with minimal resource consumption.

Angle-Based Multicast Analog Beamforming With Low Resolution Phase Shifters for LEO Satellite Communications

Angle-Based Multicast Analog Beamforming With Low Resolution Phase Shifters for LEO Satellite Communications

Energy Efficient Resource Allocation for Uplink RIS-Aided Millimeter-Wave Networks With NOMA

In this paper, energy efficiency (EE) is maximized for the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) aided millimeter-Wave (mmWave) networks with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and multiple mobile devices. To this end, we first propose the EE optimization, under the constraints of maximum power, minimal rate of devices and constant modulus of beamforming (BF) vectors. Then, the joint resource allocation scheme of power allocation (PA) and BF is designed. Specifically, given PA, an effective iterative algorithm based on the majorizationminimization, concave-convex procedure and block coordinate descent (BCD) is presented to obtain closed-form solutions of suboptimal passive BF (PBF) and analog BF (ABF) for each iteration. Then, given PBF and ABF, an effective iterative algorithm based on the successive convex approximation, BCD and Dinkelbach methods is derived to achieve suboptimal closedform PA for each iteration. By incorporating these two algorithms into the BCD method, a joint optimization algorithm for EE maximization is presented. As a result, joint resource allocation of PA, PBF and ABF is attained. Besides, the convergence and complexity of the algorithms are analyzed. For comparison, the benchmark scheme based on the multidimensional search method and artificial bee colony algorithm is also presented. Simulation results show that the proposed joint scheme is effective and higher EE can be obtained with lower complexity.

A 40-nm 169mW Ultrasound Imaging Processor Supporting Advanced Modes for Hand-Held Devices.

Hand-held ultrasound devices have been widely used in the field of healthcare and power-efficient, real-time imaging is essential. This work presents the world's first ultrasound imaging processor supporting advanced modes, including vector flow imaging and elastography imaging. Plane-wave beamforming is utilized to ensure that the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is sufficiently high for the advanced mode. The storage size and power consumption are minimized through algorithm-architecture co-optimization. The proposed plane-wave beamforming reduces the storage size of the required delay values by 43.7%. By exchanging the processing order, the storage size is reduced by 78.1% for elastography imaging. Parallel beamforming and interleaved firing are employed to achieve real-time imaging for all the supported modes. Fabricated in 40-nm CMOS technology, the proposed processor integrates 4.7M logic gates in core area of 3.24mm2. This work achieves a 20.3× higher beamforming rate with 5.3-to-29.1× lower power consumption than the state-of- the-art design. It also has 60% lower hardware complexity (in terms of gate count), in addition to the capability for supporting the advanced mode.

Energy-Efficient Analog Beamforming for RF-WET with Charging Time Constraint

Energy-Efficient Analog Beamforming for RF-WET with Charging Time Constraint

Performance analysis of insertion loss incorporated hybrid precoding for massive MIMO

<abstract> <p>Due to an increase in the number of users and a high demand for high data rates, researchers have resorted to boosting the capacity and spectral efficiency of the next-generation wireless communication. With a limited RF chain, hybrid analog digital precoding is an appealing alternative. The hybrid precoding approach divides the beamforming process into an analog beamforming network and a digital beamforming network of a reduced size. As a result, numerous hybrid beamforming networks have been proposed. The practical effects of signal processing in the RF domain, such as the additional power loss incurred by an analog beamforming network, were not taken into account. The effectiveness of hybrid precoding structures for massive MIMO systems was examined in this study. In particular, a viable hardware network realization with insertion loss was developed. Investigating the spectral and energy efficiency of two popular hybrid precoding structures, the fully connected structure, and the subconnected structure, it was found that in a massive MIMO, the subconnected structure always performed better than the fully connected structure. Characterizing the effect of quantized analog precoding, it was shown that the subconnected structure was able to achieve better performance with fewer feedback bits than the fully connected structure.</p> </abstract>

Power Optimization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Assisted Future Wireless Communication Using Hybrid Beamforming Technique in Disaster Management

Several established procedures are required to be followed when responding to disasters. Although most of them have so far been successful, they pose their own set of difficulties. The primary factor is response time, which is crucial for disaster management. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for wireless communication not only increases response time but also is energy efficient. However, UAVs have limited power capacities, which makes their use in wireless communication challenging. In wireless communication, hybrid beamforming is a technique for optimizing the battery consumption of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Massive MIMO technology facilitates hybrid beamforming by deploying antenna arrays, efficiently directing transmitted energy to intended receivers, and minimizing power waste. Beamforming relies heavily on accurate Channel State Information (CSI). Advanced channel estimation and tracking techniques optimize power allocation based on real-time channel conditions, thereby minimizing energy consumption and ensuring connection reliability. Hybrid beamforming combines the advantages of digital and analog beamforming to reduce power consumption while maintaining communication performance. This paper proposes a power optimization technique for UAV-based wireless communication using hybrid beamforming to maximize spectral efficiency and increase the battery life of UAVs.

Deep Unfolding-Powered Analog Beamforming for In-Band Full-Duplex

Deep Unfolding-Powered Analog Beamforming for In-Band Full-Duplex