Towards Adaptive Beamforming in Indoor Wireless Networks: An Experimental Approach

Several research works have argued that adaptive beamforming has the potential to realize the high spectral efficiency requirements of next-generation wireless standards, and is especially well-suited for multipath-rich environments such as indoors. Most works have been limited to theory; few works in literature address the practical benefits and realizability of adaptive beamforming. In this paper, the authors design and implement the first indoor WLAN beamforming system with multi-element array antennas and software radio platforms that form a testbed for exploration of practical benefits of beamforming, and evaluation of algorithms for efficient beamforming in diverse environments.