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Antenna Coding Empowered by Pixel Antennas

Shanpu Shen, Kai-Kit Wong, Ross Murch

TL;DR

This work introduces antenna coding empowered by pixel antennas, combining a physically grounded multiport circuit model with beamspace channel representations to control wireless channels through binary switch states. It develops SISO and MIMO frameworks, including SEBO-based binary optimization and codebook designs, to maximize channel gain and capacity, respectively, and demonstrates substantial gains over fixed-configuration antennas. The paper also introduces an efficient multiport circuit network model that closely matches full EM simulations while delivering orders-of-magnitude faster computation, enabling real-time antenna-coding optimization. The findings indicate that pixel antennas, particularly with larger physical apertures, can significantly boost average channel gain (up to $5.4 imes$) and capacity (up to $3.1 imes$), highlighting their potential to redefine wireless system design. These contributions lay groundwork for advanced pixel-antenna systems in LOS and multipath environments with extension paths to multi-user, OFDM, and wireless power transfer scenarios.

Abstract

Pixel antennas, based on discretizing a continuous radiation surface into small elements called pixels, are a flexible reconfigurable antenna technology. By controlling the connections between pixels via switches, the characteristics of pixel antennas can be adjusted to enhance the wireless channel. Inspired by this, we propose a novel technique denoted antenna coding empowered by pixel antennas. We first derive a physical and electromagnetic based communication model for pixel antennas using microwave multiport network theory and beamspace channel representation. With the model, we optimize the antenna coding to maximize the channel gain in a single-input single-output (SISO) pixel antenna system and develop a codebook design for antenna coding to reduce the computational complexity. We analyze the average channel gain of SISO pixel antenna system and derive the corresponding upper bound. In addition, we jointly optimize the antenna coding and transmit signal covariance matrix to maximize the channel capacity in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) pixel antenna system. Simulation results show that using pixel antennas can enhance the average channel gain by up to 5.4 times and channel capacity by up to 3.1 times, demonstrating the significant potential of pixel antennas as a new dimension to design and optimize wireless communication systems.

Antenna Coding Empowered by Pixel Antennas

TL;DR

This work introduces antenna coding empowered by pixel antennas, combining a physically grounded multiport circuit model with beamspace channel representations to control wireless channels through binary switch states. It develops SISO and MIMO frameworks, including SEBO-based binary optimization and codebook designs, to maximize channel gain and capacity, respectively, and demonstrates substantial gains over fixed-configuration antennas. The paper also introduces an efficient multiport circuit network model that closely matches full EM simulations while delivering orders-of-magnitude faster computation, enabling real-time antenna-coding optimization. The findings indicate that pixel antennas, particularly with larger physical apertures, can significantly boost average channel gain (up to ) and capacity (up to ), highlighting their potential to redefine wireless system design. These contributions lay groundwork for advanced pixel-antenna systems in LOS and multipath environments with extension paths to multi-user, OFDM, and wireless power transfer scenarios.

Abstract

Pixel antennas, based on discretizing a continuous radiation surface into small elements called pixels, are a flexible reconfigurable antenna technology. By controlling the connections between pixels via switches, the characteristics of pixel antennas can be adjusted to enhance the wireless channel. Inspired by this, we propose a novel technique denoted antenna coding empowered by pixel antennas. We first derive a physical and electromagnetic based communication model for pixel antennas using microwave multiport network theory and beamspace channel representation. With the model, we optimize the antenna coding to maximize the channel gain in a single-input single-output (SISO) pixel antenna system and develop a codebook design for antenna coding to reduce the computational complexity. We analyze the average channel gain of SISO pixel antenna system and derive the corresponding upper bound. In addition, we jointly optimize the antenna coding and transmit signal covariance matrix to maximize the channel capacity in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) pixel antenna system. Simulation results show that using pixel antennas can enhance the average channel gain by up to 5.4 times and channel capacity by up to 3.1 times, demonstrating the significant potential of pixel antennas as a new dimension to design and optimize wireless communication systems.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 32 sections, 47 equations, 11 figures, 2 tables, 1 algorithm.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Pixel Antenna
  3. SISO Pixel Antenna System
  4. Beamspace Channel Model
  5. Antenna Coding Design
  6. Codebook Design for Antenna Coding
  7. Partition Optimization
  8. Antenna Coder Optimization
  9. Performance Analysis
  10. MIMO Pixel Antenna System
  11. Beamspace Channel Model
  12. Channel Capacity
  13. Antenna Coding Design
  14. Antenna Coding Design with Uniform Power Allocation
  15. Joint Antenna Coding and Waterfilling Design
  16. ...and 17 more sections

Figures (11)

  • Figure 1: (a) Schematic for pixel antenna. (b) Multiport circuit network for pixel antenna. Red arrows represent the ports which replace switches.
  • Figure 2: Two examples of pixel antenna designs proposed in 7950976 and 9769906.
  • Figure 3: Model of the multiport circuit network for pixel antenna.
  • Figure 4: System diagram of the SISO pixel antenna system.
  • Figure 5: System diagram of the MIMO pixel antenna system.
  • ...and 6 more figures