Experimental Evaluation of a Beamforming-capable System using NI USRP Software Defined Radios

Abstract

This paper presents the implementation, evaluation and validation of a radio system solution able to direct the main radiated lobe towards a target user (beamforming). The comprehensive hardware architecture integrates: (1) the transmitting sub-system, (2) the antenna array sub-system, (3) the synchronization sub-system, (4) the receiving sub-system, and (5) the data processing unit sub-system. Two beamforming algorithms are implemented: Minimum Variance Distorsionless Response and Phase Shift beamformer. The radiant system beamforming capacity is evaluated in terms of maximum pointing deviation of the main lobe relative to the direction where the target user is positioned, First Null Beam Width, and antenna gain.