Terminal-embedded beamforming for wireless local area networks [accepted from open call]

In dense traffic areas, wireless local area networks (WLANs) suffer from interference problems due to the congestion of the open and unlicensed ISM band. To mitigate these problems, a terminal-embedded beamforming framework is proposed. This beamforming is capable of focusing the transmission and the reception in the direction of the relevant access point. At the same time, the framework is backward compatible with existing WLAN networks. The beam- forming enabled terminal benefits in terms of capacity, security, and energy efficiency without requiring any changes on the network side or requiring new investment on the part of network providers. The beamforming solution is seen as an attractive value-added feature, as well as a low-cost solution for the future WLAN terminal design. This opens the door for mobile device manufacturers to include the proposed solution in their product line. In this work, the backward- compatibility challenges are addressed, and possible solutions and limitations are discussed. A prototype design built on a laptop computer also is described. The experimental results show a significant capacity increase in both an interference-free scenario and an interference-limited scenario.