Design and implementation of a switched-beam smart antenna for an 802.11b wireless access point

This paper focuses on the design and implementation of beam forming network components for use at 2.4 GHz. The beam forming network (BFN) is designed to utilize a dual metric beam-selection algorithm. The first metric uses analog power detection and is incorporated in the switch matrix. A digital metric is performed off-board to update the switch states when necessary. The design and measured results of the 8-way Butler matrix and switch matrix are presented. The array factor is simulated to establish the radiation pattern of the BFN. Theoretical calculations of SNR improvement are modified to include the loss of the network for overall system performance.