Smart Gateway for Healthcare Networks Based on Beam Steering Technology

To ensure high-reliability communication in healthcare networks, this paper presents a smart gateway system that includes an angle-of-arrival (AOA) estimation and a beam steering function for a small circular antenna array. To form a beam toward healthcare sensors, the proposed antenna estimates the direction of the sensors utilizing the radio-frequency-based interferometric monopulse technique. The fabricated antenna was assessed based on the measurements of complex directivity and the over-the-air (OTA) testing in Rice propagation environments using a two-dimensional fading emulator. The measurement results reveal that the accuracy of the AOA estimation agrees well with that of the analytical data obtained through the Monte Carlo simulation. This antenna is embedded with a beam steering function employing phased array technology, which can form a beam spaced at 45° intervals. The ability of full-azimuth beam steering with regard to the proposed antenna was evaluated by beam propagation experiments using a human phantom in an indoor environment. The received signal of the proposed antenna with beam steering increases more than that of a conventional dipole antenna, confirming that the developed antenna has great potential of achieving high-reliability communication in a healthcare network.