Compact Beamforming Antennas for IoT-Enabled Directional Modulation and Localization
Citation:
Zandamela, Abel Abdul, Compact Beamforming Antennas for IoT-Enabled Directional Modulation and Localization, Trinity College Dublin, School of Engineering, Electronic & Elect. Engineering, 2024Abstract:
In recent years, there has been a considerable focus in various research domains directed
towards the miniaturization of wireless communication devices. This increasing demand
for highly compact systems is a growing trend to facilitate cutting-edge technologies like
the Internet of Things (IoT). In this regard, a fundamental component of wireless communication
systems is the antenna that transmits or receives the radio waves, enabling
information broadcast. With the rapidly expanding number of IoT applications, increasing
constraints are placed on the available space for antenna installation while demanding more
functionalities like beamforming and multi-band operation. The beamforming technology is
critical to enable the control of the shape and direction of the antenna generated radiation
pattern. This, in turn, enhances the overall wireless link by providing improved antenna
gain, enhanced Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), elimination of undesired interference, and enabling
several modern applications like localization in terms of Angle of Arrival (AoA) and
emerging physical layer security techniques like Directional Modulation (DM).
Traditionally, antenna arrays have been applied to realize flexible beamforming properties
to enable AoA measurements and DM techniques. However, antenna arrays comprise a
set of radiators requiring inter-element spacing of typically half of the free space wavelength
at the antenna center operating frequency. Such a requirement makes the final structure
too bulky for integration into compact IoT devices, especially those operating on the Sub-6
GHz frequency bands. Miniaturization of classical arrays can be accomplished by reducing
the inter-element spacing. However, such miniaturization usually results in stronger mutual
coupling between the elements, which leads to undesired effects like the radiation of
distorted antenna pattern, reduced gain, polarization mismatch, among other issues. This
ultimately degrades the beamforming characteristics and the performance of AoA-based
localization and DM security approach.
The main goal of this thesis is to address the problem of performing beamforming while
using miniaturized antennas. This thesis contributes to this issue by proposing novel beamforming
solutions based on the theory of Spherical Modes. The work also highlights the
benefits of using Spherical Modes Beamforming (SMB) antennas to enable AoA estimation
and DM in small IoT platforms, and provides a framework linking the SMB characteristics
with the performance metrics of both AoA estimation and DM techniques. Although the
SMB solution provides significant miniaturization compared to classical arrays, non-planar
geometries and single-band operation may still be limiting factors for its integration in
emerging compact IoT devices, like on-body systems. This thesis addresses those limitations
by introducing planar antennas capable of performing beamforming within the upper
hemisphere and extending the SMB principle to support multi-band operation.
Author's Homepage:
https://tcdlocalportal.tcd.ie/pls/EnterApex/f?p=800:71:0::::P71_USERNAME:ZANDAMEADescription:
APPROVED
Author: Zandamela, Abel Abdul
Advisor:
Narbudowicz, AdamMarchetti, Nicola
Publisher:
Trinity College Dublin. School of Engineering. Discipline of Electronic & Elect. EngineeringType of material:
ThesisCollections
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