A land-mobile satellite tracking experiment with a DBF self-beam steering array antenna

Abstract

This paper discusses a land‐mobile satellite experiment and its results, on a self‐beam steering array antenna implemented by using a digital beam forming (DBF) technique with a compact digital signal processing circuit using ASICs. This antenna allows automatic and open‐loop beam steering toward an unknown signal arrival direction by simple spatial signal processing. Beam‐space maximal‐ratio combining was employed as the steering algorithm. The antenna was mounted on a test van and the basic performance was demonstrated by receiving a signal in the 1.5‐GHz band in a land‐mobile satellite channel with the Japanese ETS‐V satellite. The experiment showed stable beam steering and automatic tracking under real mobile conditions. Reacquisition of the signal arrival after shadowing was also fast enough. Moreover, steering for the direct signal arrival was not affected even with the arrival of a strong, reflected multipath signal. The possibility for optimal combination of multipath signals was demonstrated by multidirectional steering patterns. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 81(7): 1–13, 1998

Applications of adaptive array antennas in mobile communications

“…Since the channel profile changes very rapidly when the terminal moves due to quick changes in the mobile environment, the adaptation of the antenna to this environment must be fast and stable. This section introduces a self-beam steering array antenna taking into account the above factors [39,40].…”

Electronically steerable array antennas for mobile satellite communications-a review

“…Miura et a1 [13] and I. Chiba [14] have reported a 4x4-element DBF square array. This antenna has the capability of allowing the nulls to be steered in the directions of interference signals.…”