Design and Implementation of a Full-Digital Beamforming Array With Nonreciprocal Tx/Rx Beam Patterns

Abstract

This letter reports a strategy of full-digital arrays with nonreciprocal transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) beam patterns, for the first time, for 5G/6G wireless communications. The proposed full-digital array contains a smaller number of Rx channels than that of the Tx channels. The unequal number of Tx and Rx channels makes the transmitting and receiving patterns asymmetrical, which would not only release the burden of data processing but also reduce the hardware cost and power consumption of the entire system. Importantly, as compared with conventional large-scale beamforming arrays, the proposed strategy will not deteriorate the range of coverage at an instantaneous time. A 64-element full-digital beamforming array prototype was designed, fabricated, and characterized for a proof-of-concept demonstration.