DDS-PLL Architecture for Adaptive Beam Steering

The path loss contribution in a modern telecommunications system is particularly critical due to the higher frequencies employed. However, this can be mitigated by improving the antenna section gain. Adaptive beam steering systems are an enabling technology to seek for this objective, by focusing the antenna pattern towards a given position in the space. In this work, we propose a novel architecture for adaptive beam steering. The phase shift is introduced in the Local Oscillator (LO) path thanks to a modified DDS-PLL structure. The adaptiveness is realized through the Angle-of-Arrival (AoA) estimation of a pilot tone signal. The proposed approach is validated through a simulation campaign involving Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulations.