Smart Antennas

What is a smart antenna? People use the terminology too loosely...beamforming, beam steering, beamtilt, active antenna system, active antenna array, integrated antenna radio

After two months of research here is our view of "smart antennas":

--Beamforming: The type of full-blown beamforming done at baseband can adjust beamwidth, beam azimuth, beam tilt, or the color of your socks.

--Beam steering: This more generic term often refers to simpler beam steering without beamwidth adjustment...or can simply mean all kinds of beam adjustment

--Beamtilt: Adjusting only the vertical direction of the lobes in a mobile communications tower.

--Active antenna array: Who knows what this is supposed to mean. Let's assume that it means an array which is actively adjusted for beam steering.

--Active antenna system: Sometimes this refers to an integrated antenna radio, where a radio is placed in 1:1 correlation to a dipole antenna element. Other times this term means a beam steering array.

This area is messy because too many companies have invested in trade names that use the same words. Mobile Experts will be publishing some clarifications soon in a report which forecasts adoption of integrated antenna radios and beamsteering/beamforming arrays...