Throughput improvement in interference limited multipath environments using a smart antenna for IEEE 802.11b WLAN

The results of throughput performance improvement from a ferroelectric smart antenna used in conjunction with a WLAN network interface card is presented in this paper. A two-element beamforming network was designed and implemented using ferroelectric phase shifters. The null point in the radiation pattern of the two element antenna was scanned using control software so that undesired incoming interference signals could be rejected, resulting in improved SNR for the downlink. The resulting improvement in throughput afforded by this smart antenna was compared with that of a conventional switched diversity antenna for both indoor and outdoor channels under both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight propagation environments. The smart antenna system shows better performance in terms of data throughput rate and range extension to the access point.