Review of Distributed Beamforming

Abstract

As the capabilities of individual nodes in wireless sensor networks increase, so does the opportunity to perform more complicated tasks, such as cooperative distributed beamforming to improve the range of communications and save precious battery power during the transmission. This work presents a review of the current literature focused on implementing distributed beamformers; covering the calculation of ideal beamforming weights, practical considerations such as carrier alignment, smart antennas based on distributed beamformers, and open research problems in the field of distributed beamforming.

Keywords

• beamforming
• distributed antenna array
• smart antenna
• virtual array