Systems Engineering a Low Cost Digital Beam Formed Phased Array for IoT Connectivity

This work describes the systems engineering and advanced prototype hardware of a digital beam steering receive phased array for IoT device connectivity. It uses low cost software defined radios (SDRs). IoT devices require connectivity for the transfer of data from the point information is gathered to the cloud and user community. In locations where multiband base stations provide connectivity, concerns over interference require the use ‘Smart Base Stations’ which are able to minimize interference and maintain connectivity to IoT devices. Phased arrays can also prolong battery life of IoT devices, increase bit rate (more link budget), provide location services where GPS connectivity does not exist (inside locations), and improve jamming immunity. However, the cost of the hardware can be prohibitive for some applications. A trade study is performed to determine the optimum SDR for the demonstration and a prototype system is constructed and measured to show the feasibility of the approach. The work concludes with suggestion for further work which includes the use of a field programmable gate array to interface between the SDRs and the host system.