International audienc

This letter presents the design of a planar antenna for U W B applications with a bandwidth of 5.5 GHz over 3.7 to 9.2 GHz and return loss values lower than −10 dB. The antenna geometry is described in terms of a spline-based representation whose control parameters, together with other geometrical descriptive quantities, are determined through a suitable Particle Swarm optimizer (P SO) in order to fit the U W B requirements. Representative results of both numerical and experimental validations are reported in order to assess the performance of the prototype as well as to give some preliminary indications on the reliability and effectiveness of the whole synthesis approach.

The integration of smart antennas in wireless sensor networks is a challenging and very attractive technical solution to improve the system capacity, the quality of service, and the power control. In this paper, some benefits coming from such an integration are experimentally assessed dealing with a set of test scenarios. Finally, some conclusions are discussed in order to point out current potentialities and limitations of the smart antennas integration to envisage future and possible advances.

International audienc

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