Abstract
Next generation wireless systems will consist of hundreds of antenna elements packed in small-sized antenna arrays. The operation of these systems relies on perfect antenna front-end. In practice, the antenna array is subject to blockages and circuit failure. This project studies the impact of imperfect receive antenna front-end on the received signal in an indoor environment. A low complexity algorithm that minimizes the effects of antenna element blockage is then proposed and tested via simulations. The results demonstrate that both antenna blockages and partial link blockages perturb the sidelobe levels of the antenna’s directivity pattern. The proposed algorithm is shown to provide a trade-off between the receiver gain and sidelobe level reduction.