Lecture-3

7.5 Beamforming
To change the directionality of the array when transmitting, the phase and relative amplitude of
the signal at each transmitter can be controlled to create a pattern of constructive and destructive
interference in the wave front and when receiving, information from different sensors is
combined in a way to improve the reception performance of the receiving antenna array. To
achieve this goal, some spatial processing techniques is used in smart antennas. These are
referred to as beamforming techniques because they can form the array beam pattern to meet the
requirements dictated by the wireless system. In smart antenna systems the spatial processing
techniques are applied via algorithms processed by a digital signal processor (DSP) to estimate
the direction of arrival (DOA) of all impinging signals and the appropriate weights to ideally
steer the maximum radiation of the antenna pattern toward the SOI and to place nulls toward the
SNOI.
Beamforming techniques can be broadly divided into two categories:

Conventional (fixed beam) beamformers:

Conventional beamformers use a fixed set of weightings and time-delays to combine the signals
from the sensors in the array, primarily using only information about the location of the sensors
in space and the wave directions of interest.

Adaptive beamformers:
Adaptive beamforming techniques generally combine the information about the location of the
sensors and the wave directions of interest with the properties of the signals actually received by
the array, typically to improve rejection of unwanted signals from other directions. In adaptive
beamforming the goal is to adapt the beam by adjusting the magnitude and phase of each antenna
element such that a desirable pattern is formed .

7.6 Fixed weight beamforming basics

7.6.1 Maximum signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) beamformer
The received signal can be enhanced as well as the interfering signal can be minimized by the
application of certain principle based on maximizing the SIR. It is intuitive that all the
interference can be cancelled by placing the nulls at their angle of arrival, then the SIR will be
maximized automatically.

Let us asssume a threee element array

a
with on
ne fixed dessired source,, two undesiired interfereences
and all th
he signals aree assumed to
o be operated
d at same caarrier frequenncy.

Fig. 7.7 Three

T
element array with
h desired and
d interferingg signals
Fig.7.7 shows
s
the signals
s
that are arriving
g from threee directions. The desireed signal s((k) is
coming from
f
0 direection and tw
wo interferen
nce signals i1(k) and i2(kk) are arrivinng from 1 aand 2
direction
ns respectively. These sig
gnals are recceived by thee three elem
ment array wiith three poteential
weights. Each received signal is xi(k), where i = 1,2,3.
The array
y vector is given by
a = [e-jkdssin

j
ejkdsin
]T

(7.1)

The array
y weights for optimizatio
on are given
n by
wH =[ w1 w2 w3]

(7.2)

Thus thee array outpu

ut can be rep
presented as:

y w H a w1e jkkd sin w2 w3 e jkd sin

(7.3)

The array
y output for the desired signal will be
b designateed by yS wheereas the arrray output foor the
interferin
ng or undesiired signals will be desiignated by y 1 and y2. Sinnce there arre three unknnown
weights, there must be
b three cond
ditions satisffied.
H
n 1: y s w a 0 w1 e
Condition

Condition
n 2: y1 w

jkd sin 0

w 2 w3 e jkd sin 0 1

a1 w1e jkd sin 1 w2 w3 e jkd sin 1 0

jkd sin 2
H
w 2 w3 e jkd sin 2 0
Condition
n 3: y 2 w a 2 w1 e

Condition 1 demands that ys = 1 for the desired signal, thus allowing the desired signal to be
received without modification. Conditions 2 and 3 reject the undesired interfering signals. These
conditions can be represented in matrix form as

w H A u1

(7.4)

where A [ a 0 a1 a 2 ] : matrix of the steering vectors

u1 [10 0]T : Cartesian basis vector

The required complex weights can be obtained as:
w H u 1 T A 1

(7.5)

As an example, if the desired signal is arriving from 0 =00, while 1 = 45 and 2 = 600, the
necessary weights can be calculated to be
w1* 0.28 0.07i
*

w 2 0.45

0
.
28
0
.
07
i
w3

(7.6)

The array factor is shown in the Fig. 7.8.

1
data1
0.9
0.8

Array factor

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0

80

60

40

20

0
Angle

20

40

60

80

Fig 7.8 The array factor for the example array

The previous development is predicated on the fact that the desired signal and the total of the
interfering signals make A (steering vector matrix) an invertible square matrix. In the case where
the number of interferers is less than M-1, where M is the number of array elements, an equation
is introduced by Prof. L. Godara which gives an estimate of the weights. However, his

formulation requires noise be added in the system because the matrix inversion will be singular
otherwise. Using the Godara method we have:

H
u A A A n2 I

(7.7)
where u 1T is the Cartesian basis vector whose length equals the total number of sources.
This basic sidelobe canceling scheme works through an intuitive application of the array steering
vector for the desired signal and interfering signals. However, by formally maximizing the SIR,
we can derive the analytic solution for all arbitrary cases.
The general non-adaptive conventional narrowband array is shown in Fig. 7.9.
0
s(k)
1

x1(k)

i1(k)
x2(k)

w1
w2

xM(k)
iN(k)

y(k)

wM*

Fig.7.9 Narrowband array

Figure 7.9 shows one desired signal arriving from the angle 0 and N interfering signals arriving
from angles 1, ..., N. The signal and the interferers are received by an array of M elements with
M potential weights. Each received signal at the elements also includes additive Gaussian noise.
Time is represented by the kth time sample. Thus, the weighted array output y can be given in the
following form:
yk w xk
H

(7.8)

where

xk a 0 s k a a a 2 a N
xk x s k x i k nk

i1 k

i k
2
nk

i N k

(7.9)

w w1 w 2 w M

T : array weights

x s k :

desired signal vector

x i k :

interfering signal vector

n k :
ai

zero mean Gaussian noise for each channel

: M-element array steering vector for i direction of arrival.

The equation (7.8) can be rewritten as:

y k w x s k x i k nk w x s k u k
H

(7.10)

where u k x i k nk = undesired signals

It is initially assumed that all arriving signals are monochromatic and the total number of
arriving signals N+1 M. It is understood that the arriving signals are time varying and thus our
calculations are based upon k-time snapshots of the incoming signal. Obviously, if the emitters
are moving, the matrix of steering vectors is changing with time and the corresponding arrival
angles are changing. Unless otherwise stated, the time dependence will be suppressed.
We can calculate the array correlation matrices for both the desired signal ( R ss ) and the
undesired signals ( R uu ). The literature often calls these matrices the array covariance matrices.
However, the covariance matrix is a mean removed correlation matrix. Since we do not generally
know the statistical mean of the system noise or the front end detector output, it is best to label
all R matrices as correlation matrices. If the process is ergodic and the time average is utilized,
the correlation matrices can be defined with the time average notation as
weighted array output power for the desired signal is given by:

s2 E w H xs w H Rss w

R ss and R uu . The

(7.11)

where
Rss E xs xsH is signal correlation matrix.

The weighted array output power for the undesired signals is given by:

u2 E w H u w H Ruu w

(7.12)

where it can be shown that

R uu R ii R nn

with

(7.13)

Rii =

correlation matrix for interferences

Rnn =

correlation matrix for noise

The (SIR) is defined as the ratio of the desired signal power divided by the undesired signal
power.
SIR

s2 w H Rss w

u2 w H Ruu w

(7.14)

The SIR can be maximized in Eq.(7.14) by taking the derivative with respect to w and setting
the result equal to zero. Rearranging terms, we can derive the following relationship:

Rss w SIR Ruu w

(7.15)

or
1
Ruu
Rss w SIR w

(7.16)

Equation (7.16) is an eigenvector equation with SIR being the eigen-values. The maximum SIR

SIR max is equal to the largest eigenvalue max

1
for the Hermitian matrix Ruu Rss . The

eigenvector associated with the largest eigenvalue is the optimum weight vector wopt . Thus
1
Ruu
Rss wSIR max wopt SIRmax wSIR

(7.17)

2
H
Since the correlation matrix is defined as Rss E s a0 a0 , we can pose the weight vector in
terms of the optimum Wiener solution.

1
wSIR Ruu
a0

(7.18)

where
2
E s
H

a0 wSIR

SIRmax

(7.19)