Analysis of Influence of Channel Damage on Phased Array Communication Links

The phased array communication link is an important form of wireless communication, and the key is to ensure consistency of the amplitude and phase of the phased array radio frequency (RF) channel. Since the RF channel of phased array unit will be damaged due to long working time or lightning stroke, the amplitude and phase of each channel communication signal are inconsistent caused by randomness of the damage, thus resulting in the distortion of synthetic signal and an increase in the bit error rate (BER) of the system. In this paper, the expressions of error vector magnitude (EVM) and BER of phased array communication links after RF channel damage are deduced, and the BER values of communication links under different damage degrees are calculated theoretically. Then, a typical simulation model of phased array communication links is established, and the effects of amplitude and phase inconsistencies on the BER of communication systems are simulated and studied. The results show that when the inconsistency is low (the variance of distribution is small), the degradation degree of communication system is basically consistent with the decrease mean of the amplitude of RF signal. With the increase of the inconsistency of the amplitude and phase, the degradation degree of communication link rises rapidly, far exceeding the change value of signal amplitude.