SBIR Phase II: Adaptive Phased Arrays for Broadband Wireless Access

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will culminate in the demonstration of the smallest, most economical phased array system yet developed for addressing the problem of how to traverse the "last mile" between a broadband network and the home. During the course of the project, the state of the art in phased array antenna technology will be advanced and networking algorithms will be developed to take advantage of this innovative technology. The broader impact of this research project is to fulfill the challenge to economically deliver wireless Internet access to rural communities. This steerable technology provides a greater than 50 percent increase in coverage and a cost savings of up to 55 percent. These cost and coverage improvements would help meet the needs and bring the benefits of broadband Internet into areas of the country that remain underserved.