An IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Half-Cubic Node Based on a Switched-Beam Antenna for Indoor Direction of Arrival Estimation

This paper presents a proof of concept of a wireless node for Direction of Arrival estimation in indoor scenarios and validates its performance. The proposed device is based on a System-on-Chip compliant with IEEE 802.15.4 standard communication protocol. The node is equipped with two Switched Beam Antennas arranged as a half-cube. Both these SBAs are inherently capable of radiating four uncorrelated beams by using a passive beamformer controlled by a 2 bits switch. The device is hence capable of 8 different beams spanning over 180°. An experimental validation confirm a mean error of 2.26° with a 90% coverage of 5.22°.