Performance Optimization of the Arbitrary Arrays with Randomly Distributed Elements for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Beamforming using regular linear or planar arrays, in which their elements are uniformly spaced is widely studied for various applications. However, in the wireless sensor network applications, such regular arrays are not possible to build. Thus, they are usually built with randomly distributed planar elements. Generating the required beamforming from such randomly distributed arrays that can provide a significant improvement in the wireless sensor network performance is a real challenging issue. In this paper, the amplitude and phase of each random element within the arbitrary bounded area is optimized such that its corresponding array pattern acts as a beam-steerable with minimum sidelobe level and a certain beamwidth. Simulation results under various optimization constraints are given to show the effectiveness of the considered random array. The effect of changing the total number of array elements on the array performance, such as beamwidth, minimum sidelobe level, and the gain were also investigated.