A Beginner’s Guide For Beamforming

What is Beamforming?

Beamforming is a technology that enables multiple users to send and receive data over a shared channel. It is used to improve the performance of WiFi networks.

We can use beamforming technology in our daily lives when we are on the go and don’t have access to WiFi signal. It could be used for example in our cars, when we are driving or when we are walking along the street. In this case, we will be able to send and receive data with other people without having a WiFi connection available.

Beamforming is a technique by which an array of antennas can be steered to transmit radio signals in a specific direction. Rather than simply broadcasting energy/signals in all directions, the antenna arrays that use beamforming, determine the direction of interest and send/receive a stronger beam of signals in that specific direction. 

How does beamforming work?

Beamforming is a term usually used in wireless communication, particularly in Wi-Fi. Beamforming is used to direct the transmission of radio waves to a particular direction. Radio waves don’t travel in a straight line, but instead travel in all directions. In order to direct the radio waves to a specific direction, you need to know the direction of the receiver. That is why beamforming relies on the transmission of multiple signals so that it can determine the direction of the receiver in relation to the transmission. The multiple signals are not just sent in a single direction, but instead of sending them in multiple directions, they are sent differently in a phased-array antenna. The phased-array antenna is then used to determine the direction of the receiver.

Beamforming is a way to achieve focused communication between two devices. The goal is to direct signals in a specific direction to a specific device, while reducing interference and noise to other devices. It is a method of signal processing that is used to control the direction of radio frequency (RF) energy by using multiple antennas to focus the radiation pattern. It is generally used in wireless LANs, wireless communications and radar systems.

Advantages of Beamforming:

Focusing a signal in a specific direction lets you deliver a higher signal quality to the receiver, which then means faster information transfer and fewer errors, without having to boost the power of the broadcast. Because beamforming can also be used to reduce or eliminate broadcasting in other directions, it can help reduce interference for users trying to pick up other signals.

Some of the advantages of beamforming includes:

• Boosting beam power in specific directions to support the farthest subscribers.
• Reducing beam power for close-in subscribers and reducing interference issues for subscribers nearest the transmitter.
• Increased carrier-to-noise (C/N) ratio of the signal resulting in a signal that is more robust in noisy and attenuating channel environments.
• Supports immunity against fading and interference in unlicensed channels .
• This idea is based on the concept of interference, which is a form of fading. The fading process can be modeled as a random variable with mean 0 and variance 1.The system is fully compatible with the Radio Application Program Interface (RAPI), allowing for the detection of radio events, reception by receivers, processing of received signals with multiple filters.

Different Types of Beamforming

Beamforming is a technology that is used to focus a radio signal on the part of the spectrum that is most suitable for it. It works by sending a narrow beam of radio waves into the air and then measuring the reception of these waves. This measurement allows the beam to be focused on an area, which is usually smaller than the size of an antenna.

There are two types of beamforming: Directional and Omnidirectional.

• Directional beams fall on one spot in the spectrum and omnidirectional beams fall on all spots as if they were a single antenna. It is important to note that directional beams are an extension of the co-channel channel spacing technique known as non-directional MIMO Directional MIMO spreads signal power to all directions. This makes it possible to cover more space in the spectrum than a co-channel MIMO solution, but directional beams are generally more complex and expensive to implement, as well as difficult to design, build, and maintain. If you want your wireless network to share spectrum capacity with other networks doing the same, you’ll have to use a co-channel solution, where each network needs its own received signal power to achieve full coverage.
• Non-directional MIMO is used for various applications, including security and video surveillance.2.4 Channel Spacing (Co-Channel)Non-directional MIMO spread power over all channels in the spectrum. This is an extension of co-channel MIMO, where each source sends its signal to every single channel in the spectrum .2.5 Bandwidth-Sparing MIMO channel bandwidths have been optimized by combining multiple transmit and receive antennas on the same chip.