Optimal Design of Smart Antenna Arrays for Beamforming, Direction Finding, and Null Placement Using the Soft Computing Method

Abstract

The urge of modern communication system is to design and development of the smart antennas with adaptive radiation characteristics. The multifold capabilities of fourth‐dimensional antenna arrays can cater that much needed adaptiveness if properly designed. Compared to the conventional arrays, the fourth‐dimensional arrays have one added advantage as the ‘Time’ of all the switched‐on antenna elements can be managed to generate the required amplitude and phase tapering without even using attenuators and phase shifters. However, one inherent limitation of fourth‐dimensional control parameter is the generation of harmonics or sidebands. This article proposes various means of radiation pattern synthesis in fourth‐dimensional linear antenna arrays with pulse shifting, pulse splitting, and a combination of both. First of all, the pulse splitting and shifting techniques are combinedly proposed by reducing the sidelobe levels and sideband levels of the beamforming antenna arrays to enhance directivities and efficiencies. Then, this mathematical proposition of the direction finding fourth‐dimensional arrays is developed. Finally, broad nulls over a specific angle of arrival region are created for jamming and interference mitigation. For all these cases, the sidelobe level and the unwanted higher‐order sideband levels are suppressed to reduce the unwanted interferences and power losses. The optimal time schemes for all the synthesized patterns are generated by proposing a chaos‐based soft computing algorithm. The radiofrequency signals at each radiating array element are processed by the optimal time schemes proposed for specific applications. The outcomes are validated and compared with other state‐of‐the‐art works of this domain to prove the competency of the proposed work. The qualitative and quantitative comparisons presented for beamforming array is aimed for a good improvement over other reported works by targeting ultralow (less than −40 dB) sidelobe and sideband levels. For direction‐finding array, the proposed idea has also targeted ultralow sidelobes for the main as well as steered beam patterns. Furthermore, the null placement over a region has been aimed to cover more area for jamming and sidelobe reduction for interference mitigation. Overall, the optimal designs proposed for these advanced applications are beneficial for cutting‐edge communication systems.