Different adaptive beamforming algorithms for performance investigation of smart antenna system

Smart antenna systems are of great importance in wireless communication and radar applications. They effectively enhance the system capacity and reduce the co-channel interference. Smart antenna is an array antenna that uses adaptive beamforming algorithms to steer the main beam toward the desired signal direction and reject the interfering signals of the same frequency from other directions without moving the antenna. This is achieved by continuously updating the weights of each radiating element (antenna). An algorithm with low complexity, low computation costs, high speed convergence rates and better performance is usually preferred. This paper introduces a new performance investigation and comparison between five different beamforming algorithms: Least Mean Square (LMS), Normalized Least Mean Square (NLMS), Sample Matrix Inversion (SMI), Recursive Least Square (RLS) and Hybrid Least Mean Square / Sample Matrix Inversion (LMS/SMI). In this investigation, the number of array elements and the displacement among them are changed in each algorithm. Simulation experiments are carried out, and the results are compared to verify the effectiveness of this investigation. The performance of each algorithm is optimized and demonstrated using MATLAB software package.