Abstract:
A BER-conscious synthesis of switched multibeam multi-sector access point (AP) antenna is proposed to
enhance reliable communication coverage for WSN applications. The sector-based design of multi-beam AP antenna is
necessaryfor a densely deployedWSN to achieve high system
capacity with 360◦ azimuth coverage. However, the neighboring sectors cause high co-channel interference resulting in
a low signal to interference (SIR) ratio and hence degrades
the communication link quality. This leads to frequent packet
re-transmissions resulting in increased energy consumption at the power deficient sensor nodes. The proposed
BER-conscious array synthesis scheme incorporates projected power and SIR limits within the antenna design process
to maximize the effective coverage area with acceptable BER.
The optimized coverage with reliable communication implies
energy saving at the sensor nodes. Based on the proposed
process of coverage optimization, a multi-sector AP antenna is analytically synthesized. A prototype is fabricated, and
the analytically obtained coverage results are verified through experiments. The maximum radial range of 2 − 13 m with
360◦ communication coverage is achieved. Moreover, high port isolation of 45.95 dB between adjacent sectors enables the
generation of multiple simultaneous beams in the communication region resulting in high system capacity. The achieved
performance indicates that the synthesized switched multi-beam multi-sector antenna using the proposed scheme is a
good candidate for AP in WSN applications.
