DIGITAL BEAM-FORMING NETWORK HAVING A REDUCED COMPLEXITY AND ARRAY ANTENNA COMPRISING THE SAME

摘要

A digital beam-forming network (DBF) for an array antenna having N 1 antenna ports (EP), to be associated to respective antenna elements (RE), and M ≥ 1 beam ports (BP), corresponding to respective antenna beams (AB), said digital beam-forming network comprising a plurality of complex weighting elements (CWE-SE, CWE-SB, CWE-SESB) interconnected through summing nodes (SN); characterized in that at least one of said complex weighting element is connected to either two antenna ports, to be associated to respective antenna elements which are arranged symmetrically with respect to said symmetry axis, or two beam ports corresponding to respective antenna beams pointing toward directions which are symmetrical with respect to said symmetry axis, or both. An array antenna comprising N antenna elements, N_s of which are arranged according to an array pattern having a symmetry axis, N_s being an even integer different from zero, and such a digital beam-forming network.