Beam Alignment Strategy Under Hardware Constraints for D-Band Communications

Abstract

This paper describes the antenna beam alignment strategy of a D-band backhaul link adopted in the DRAGON project. The aim is to continuously compensate for antenna vibrations. This strategy is based on a periodic assessment of beams stored in a codebook, and can be implemented independently in both ends of the link. Hardware requirements coming from the envisioned architecture of the whole transceiver are taken into consideration. In particular, communications among the different involved boards restrict the periodicity at which the beams of the codebook can be assessed. The design of the codebook and the algorithm for beams selection are also discussed. Simulations based on a software specifically developed demonstrate that the solution meets the tracking specifications for an D-band link associated to realistic antenna movements.