Performance evaluation of OFDM data transmission using an 2D beamsteering transmitarray
Reis, J. R.
;
Ribeiro, C.
;
Duarte, L.
;
Gomes, R.
;
Caldeirinha, R. F. S.
International Journal on Communications Antenna and Propagation Vol. 9, Nº 2, pp. 0 - 0, April, 2019.
ISSN (print): 2039-5086
ISSN (online): 2533-2929
Scimago Journal Ranking: 0,25 (in 2019)
Digital Object Identifier: 10.15866/irecap.v9i2.16597
Abstract
This paper presents the analysis and characterisation of modulated data transmission, over-the-air, using an electronically Reconfigurable Transmitarray (eRT) composed of Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS). The eRT, which has already been presented by the authors in previous work, is employed as a transmitter antenna on a state-of-the-art Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-based Software Defined Radio (SDR), to enable electronically controlled two-dimensional beamsteering. A comparative study is presented by transmitting OFDM with and without the eRT attached at the transmitter’s horn antenna, in order to evaluate the impact that such man-made manufactured structures may have on real data transmission. The study is conducted at 5.2 GHz, when both transmitter and receiver antennas are aligned to each other but also when they are physically misaligned and the eRT is compensating for such angular mismatch. Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) and Bit-Error-Rate (BER) are used as figures of merit to evaluate the system’s performance. Results experimentally obtained inside an anechoic chamber show an enhancement on the system’s performance of 20 dB of gain on the average EVM, confirming the electromagnetic properties of the eRT.