Abstract

This paper describes integration of a software defined antenna (SDA) and a software defined radio (SDR) to enable dynamic and automatic selection of physical propagation channels. The SDA, an agile aperture antenna (A3), provides monolithic microdiversity, i.e. multiple antenna states within a single structure and within a space having maximum dimension of approximately one wavelength. In this way physical channel selection occurs outside, and therefore augmenting, the front-end electronics. The independent controllable parameters for channel access include: frequency, polarization (full Poincaré sphere), and pattern (in two dimensions). Several different tests were conducted to maximize a quality figure of merit calculated by the radio. Both library-based and evolutionary search techniques were used, resulting in short term channel improvements on the order of 10 dB, and long term fully optimized improvements on the order of 20 dB.