Low complexity hybrid smart antenna with directional elements over frequency-selective fading channel

Abstract

In this paper, a low complexity hybrid smart antenna system with directional elements and reduced-size digital beamformer is proposed to combat the inter-symbol interference (ISI) problem over frequency-selective fading channels. The conventional smart antenna systems with omni-directional elements utilize the full-size digital beamformer to suppress interference and obtain the optimum performance. However, the proposed hybrid smart antenna system with directional elements can split the linear receive array into two subarrays. One subarray contains the elements with no ISI, which can be processed with a simple maximum ratio combiner (MRC). The second subarray includes the elements with the ISI interference, which require the use of a reduced-size optimum beamformer for interference suppression. Finally, the outputs of the two subarrays are combined for optimal detection of the transmitted signals. Simulation results confirm that the proposed low complexity hybrid smart antenna system can provide robust performance under the multipath fading channel with ISI, and outperform the conventional smart antenna systems due to the use of directional antennas and utilization of multipath diversity gain.