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Daniele Piazza
Advisor: Kapil R. Dandekar, Ph.D.
Abstract:
The requirements for the next generation air interference seek to provide reliable high data rate at low cost. Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna systems have recently emerged as one of the most significant technical breakthrough in modern wireless communications able to satisfy these stringent requirements. However the necessity of assuring a high data rate in a large variety of environments while reducing the antenna array space occupation on portable devices requires an improvement in current MIMO technology. To overcome these limitations, we propose the use of reconfigurable antennas that adaptively change, through RF switches, their radiation properties and frequency of operation according to wireless channel characteristics.
The key idea of this proposal is to show that reconfigurable antennas, through their capability to dynamically change their electrical and radiation properties, can be used to change the propagation characteristics of the wireless channel existing between the transmitting and receiving antennas. The proposed MIMO system breaks from the conventional wisdom that the wireless propagation channel cannot be changed intentionally by the transceivers in the link.
Our research focuses on developing MIMO reconfigurable antenna prototypes through which the benefits and limitations of the reconfigurable MIMO antenna technology in ad hoc networks can be investigated. We will provide guidelines for designing reconfigurable antennas for MIMO systems and we will develop efficient and low power consumption methods for the antenna configuration selection in order to integrate reconfigurable antennas with the actual communication systems. In particular the novel antenna prototypes aim at providing (i) increased data rate compared to common non reconfigurable antennas in single link communications as well as in next generation ad hoc networks, (ii) reduced space occupation by the antenna on the communication device exploiting the principles of pattern and polarization diversity and (iii) reduced number of radio-frequency chains needed at the receiver/transmitter. Analytical models of the proposed system will be used to fully characterize the functionality and performance of the proposed technology. A complete evaluation of the proposed system overall performance will be conducted through measurements performed with a channel sounder specifically designed for measuring the performance of multi element antenna systems.
Friday, August 3rd at 11 a.m.
Bossone 303
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