European technological advances in smart antennas

Abstract

The European Commission, through RACE, ACTS and now the IST programmes, has funded numerous consortium based research projects addressing capacity enhancement by means of Smart or Adaptive Antenna Technology. In addition to capacity enhancement, these projects have also considered additional operational benefits, such as multipath mitigation and range extension, that this technology can offer wireless network deployments. This paper1 provides an overview of the key results obtained from the test beds and field trials conducted under the RACE and ACTS TSUNAMI projects as well as ACTS AWACS project. Further, new research activities, which embody Smart Antenna Technology, now supported under IST funding are also introduced