Distributed Beamforming for Air/Ground Communications

Wireless communications have become ubiquitous for the last two decades, especially with the advent of affordable cellular communications. While cellular systems utilize base stations to ensure connectedness of the network, many situations can arise wherein wireless nodes form a disconnected network. Examples include communication in infrastructure-less regions or in emergency events, with a sudden loss of infrastructure. Two disconneceted network components, or clusters, can communicate by pooling intra-cluster resources to achieve distributed beamforming. A transmitting group's nodes can transmit coherently to realize a gain pattern that is steered to a desired destination. Similarly, a receive group's nodes can coherently combine their signals by forming a beam in the direction of the transmitters. In this project, UtopiaCompression and UCLA propose the design of a fully wireless distributed beamforming system, including components for carrier and timing synchronization, beamformer training, and all necessary protocols. The system will be demonstrated in simulation and eventually on software radios.