Here I am, in my first hardware engineering job for digital audio devices, coming back to the same channel that got me through my first signals and systems class as a sophomore in college. Quality translates, folks! Iain rocks!!!
Hands down, the best explanation of Beamforming concept , so far across the internet. Hope the LLMs train on content like these to cater for future generations. Thanks a lot Iain ! Please dont stop making more videos.
I had so many "aha!" moments during this video that I ended up liking it multiple times, from going to click the "Like" button, forgetting that I had already liked the video just a few minutes before. Great explanation!
Solid Gold. Like Einstein said, if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it enough. What a concise visual representation of the basics of beamforming.
I'm so glad it helped. And I'm glad you found it useful to watch a second time. I've always tried to put details into my videos, alongside the overall explanations, that will give people extra benefits if they watch the videos multiple times.
Before watching your video I’ve been reading a lot of blog introducing what is beamforming, but I still cannot understand it. Your illustration is so easy to understand. Thank you Sir!
Dear Iain, these are all amazing videos. It is really tough to condense such complex material into short videos but maintain understandability of the it. This is really appreciated. You mentioned radar a couple of times. Do you have any plans to make a basic lecture on that? Maybe just simple doppler/ToF/AoA extraction or maybe something on MUSIC algorithm. I have been searching for a while for a decent explanation of MUSIC but it is hard to find one.
... I just came across this comment again. I've now made a few videos on Radar, and plan to make more. I guess you may have seen them by now, but if not, then the ones I've done so far are: "Why is a Chirp Signal used in Radar?" ruclips.net/video/Jyno-Ba_lKs/видео.html , "What is a Stepped Frequency Radar Signal?" ruclips.net/video/6JVGb3KpVqs/видео.html and "How does a Radar Track Manoeuvring Targets?" ruclips.net/video/ibvlKTGQ4zQ/видео.html
Thanks. It was awesome as I watched it for the second time. In practice, how are these delays adjusted and how do we know (in the receiver) which direction is the direction of interest to adjust those delays? Same question for transmit beamforming.
I never liked a RUclips video as much as i like this one. Indeed, it's the best explanation I have ever heard. Thank you so much for your work Prof. I wish I could have a professor like you in my university.
Thank you Iain, For making such a wonderful videos and providing us a valuable knowledge. Can you make a videos on DSP Filters (IIR and FIR Filters)? It will be very helpful.
Thank you Iain. Beam forming is an Amazing principle. So by adding multiple antennas (n Antennas) and injecting a delay circuits and adders we can form those shaped zones and select which receiver to have the best reception from specific direction. I imagine that if we have a programmable delay circuits with algorithm to control those delays and selecting the proper antennas then we can control those beams. Is that what is used in space division multiple access? We maybe able also to have intelligent algorithm that senses the RSSI levels, provide feedback to apply combinations of selecting antennas, adders and delay circuits and eventually automatically select the sending location. I wonder if such a thing already exists?
Yes, that's right. It's exactly what happens in MU-MIMO. The process you've described happens in the matrix operations in the receiver (for receive beamforming) and the transmitter (for transmit precoding). See "What is Multi-User MIMO Communications (MU MIMO)?" ruclips.net/video/0ncIWlhsu1A/видео.html
It's like noise cancellation headphones. But instead of subtracting by having a reversed waveform, it adds. And just like good noise cancelling headphones, it has to know the distance between the microphones and earpieces.
Thanks for explaination, now I'm wondering how the transceiver actually tunes to specific wireless client by selecting right delays?. Is it still in PHY or MAC layer ? Also how fast is the switching ? As if we have 4x4 router and two typical 2x2 clients how router assures signal from 3rd device will be still handled without comprising value added of two existing MU-MIMO clients?
Thank you very much for the explanation. I have a question. Antennas are fixed on a wireless device. So, the distance between antennas will be the same. How does it work for different frequencies?
Excellent question! The form of beamforming that maximises SNR (that I describe in this video) is inherently narrow band. In practice it doesn't have to be exactly half a wavelength separation, and there are approaches to designing beams that are wide band, but they come with a performance penalty in terms of SNR.
So… I created a machine monitoring daq using LabVIEW, mics and NI cRIO’s… about 4 months into monitoring a dyno i intuitively came up with this concept not knowing I stumbled upon beam forming by looking at hundreds of high speed wave form data… Thank you sir for plainly consolidating my mad-ness!
So when the signal is cancelled out on the incoming transmission.. what happens to it...? Just got a bit confused at this point? How is a beam formed if it's cancelled out? Or... Have I misinterpreted what you have said?
Yes, you're right, "cancellation" does take a bit of thinking about. One example in real life is at surf beaches, when a wave is coming in to the shore, and another previous wave is going back down the sand causing a ripple in the reverse direction. When the two waves meet, the peaks of the incoming wave add to the peaks of the returning wave creating a splash. But also, the peaks of the incoming wave are "cancelled" by the troughs of the returning wave, causing the water to be smooth a those points.
based on this explanation, is it reasonable to assume that this is how wakeword detection works? the device is listening on all microphones for the wakeword, uses it to calculate the optimum delay to "orient" the beam towards the audio source, then captures and analyses the detected audio?
This Beamforming, given fixed delay, is good only for fixed (position) signal source and fixed receiver - not for moving source or moving receiver, otherwise it will be hard to tune the delay in a way to match the movement of the source, or receiver. Has this technology "Beamforming" been used for moving source, or receiver, at all in practical application?
I know beam forming from acoustic cameras that are using an microphone array to create a picture where you can see the source of noise. This allows to analyze what part of a machine, car, plane and such is emitting what noise. Might be a topic for another video.
This is assuming ideal isotropically radiating point source elements (not flat patches). In practice, the spacing that maximises radiation efficiency will depend on the shape and size of the patches, as well as the locations of surrounding back plains etc.
Thank you so much for the precise and clear explanation on this topic. I would appreciate it if you explain about coodbook based precoder and combiner in mmwave, too. I have faced some troubles understanding this topic.
I'm glad you liked the video. I'm not offering in-house training or tutoring at the moment, but potentially will in future. For now, the videos will have to do. Please do let me know if there are particular topics that you'd like to hear more about if I haven't covered it so far. Check out my web page which shows a fully categorised list of the videos: iaincollings.com
Hi, I am a student with master's degree studying communication in south korea. Thank you very much for the good lecture. You are the hope of the wireless communication. I have two questions. 1. If i want to implement a kind of antenna diversity through the two antennas on the receiving side, It is understood that when the awgn noise added to the signal from the two antennas is different, a gain of 3 dB is obtained. As you explained in the video, when i understand physically, don't the signals entered by the two antennas have the same awgn noise? That's the question I had in mind. Since there is a benefit from beamforming, I think it would be right to have different awgn noise, but I don't understand this clearly. 2. According to what i saw in the MIMO channel-related textbook, if the angle spread (dispersion of PAS) is narrow, that is, if the reception beam is narrow, the correlation with adjacent antennas increases. It states that channel capacity and divercity gains are reduced. Performing beamforming on the transmitting side will cause the beam to be browned, which is expected to result in relatively large correlation between the receiving side adjacent antennas. Then, is it okay to understand that it is a technology that has advantages in terms of energy concentration during tx beamforming, but also has disadvantages because of the high correlation? Thank you.
It all depends on the characteristics of the channel. And I'm not sure you're understanding about the noise. Noise is introduced primarily by amplifiers in the RF "front-ends" of the transmitter and receiver. If each antenna is connected to its own amplifier, then the noise will be different for each antenna's signal. This video might help: "What are Spatial Diversity and Spatial Multiplexing in MIMO?" ruclips.net/video/MNA0xn7EeyY/видео.html and "
I'm not sure what you're asking, sorry. Beamforming is a technique for increasing the radiated/received power in a particular direction. In its most basic version, it is tuned for a specific channel/user. In more advanced implementations, it can be tuned for multiple channels/users.
I can understand the basic princple of beamforming form your video, but I have a question. Consider 24Ghz freq MIMO radar system, which has the spatial distace between Rx antenna is lambda/2. To acheive +50 degree digital beamforming, the delay time should be (lambda/2)*sin(50degree)/c = 1.6e-11 sec. So, if I want to make 50 degree beamforming, the minimum sampling rate of MIMO system should be 1.6e11 Hz, which is too high to make a real system. I want to know how can I solve this problem.. Thanks.
Thank you sir, for all of your videos; those are amazing😍. I have one doubt if we consider BS and UE then beamforming is used at BS only or at the UE side or both?
It can be used by any communication device that has multiple antennas. So yes, it can be used at both the Base Station and the User Equipment, if they have multiple antennas.
@@iain_explains The UK used to have British Satellite Broadcast system in the early 90s which used a phased array on a flat square plate ("squarial") which functioned the same as a dish.
Best. Explanation. Period.
Period.
Period.Period.
Here I am, in my first hardware engineering job for digital audio devices, coming back to the same channel that got me through my first signals and systems class as a sophomore in college. Quality translates, folks! Iain rocks!!!
That's awesome to hear! Thanks for your comment. Good luck in your job. It's always exciting to hear from people starting their careers in industry.
Hands down, the best explanation of Beamforming concept , so far across the internet. Hope the LLMs train on content like these to cater for future generations. Thanks a lot Iain ! Please dont stop making more videos.
Glad you liked it!
Words are not enough to express how grateful I am to have encountered this channel. Thank you again dear Iain for sharin your knowledge
Thanks for your very nice comment. It's great to hear that you like the videos.
That's exactly "the best explanation I've ever heard". Thank you sir!
Glad it was helpful!
I had so many "aha!" moments during this video that I ended up liking it multiple times, from going to click the "Like" button, forgetting that I had already liked the video just a few minutes before. Great explanation!
Thanks. I'm so glad you found the video helpful.
Solid Gold.
Like Einstein said, if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it enough.
What a concise visual representation of the basics of beamforming.
Thanks for your nice comment. I'm glad you like the video.
Watched 2 times and understood it like nothing else. It is the best explanation.
I'm so glad it helped. And I'm glad you found it useful to watch a second time. I've always tried to put details into my videos, alongside the overall explanations, that will give people extra benefits if they watch the videos multiple times.
I watched many videos on this topic, but only this video made me visualise the beam forming. Thanks for making such a complicated topic so easy :)
Glad it helped!
It's amazing how good your videos are. With just pen and paper you have made me understand so many concepts! Thank you so much for your contribution.
I'm so glad you like the videos and the format!
I have a master degree in EE, this is the best explanation of beam forming I have seen without all the fancy equations.
I'm glad you liked the explanation.
Superb explaination with great example. Now I also understood how Beamforming Microphones work in my headphones. Thank you!!
Glad it was helpful!
Trying to wrap my head around this topic all day, caught your video and boom, mind blown... THANK YOU!
Fantastic! I'm so glad it helped.
This explain is intuitive and clear. Excellent job.
Glad it was helpful!
Before watching your video I’ve been reading a lot of blog introducing what is beamforming, but I still cannot understand it. Your illustration is so easy to understand. Thank you Sir!
I'm glad you found it useful.
Curiosity can put u anywhere and some places cant be forgotten .This place too💙
I haven't seen a better explanation for this.. hats off sir
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.
Clear explanation sir. thank you
The most intuisive explaination that I've ever seen!
I'm so glad it was helpful.
wow , these small lectures are insanely good, thank you so much❤❤❤
I'm so glad you're finding them helpful!
Excellent. The idea of starting with the recieve case is genius!
Thanks. Glad you liked it!
One of the best explanations of beam forming ..
Glad you liked it
Dear Iain, these are all amazing videos. It is really tough to condense such complex material into short videos but maintain understandability of the it. This is really appreciated.
You mentioned radar a couple of times. Do you have any plans to make a basic lecture on that? Maybe just simple doppler/ToF/AoA extraction or maybe something on MUSIC algorithm. I have been searching for a while for a decent explanation of MUSIC but it is hard to find one.
I'm glad you like the videos. Thanks for the suggestion of a radar and MUSIC topic video. I'll add it to my "to do" list.
... I just came across this comment again. I've now made a few videos on Radar, and plan to make more. I guess you may have seen them by now, but if not, then the ones I've done so far are: "Why is a Chirp Signal used in Radar?" ruclips.net/video/Jyno-Ba_lKs/видео.html , "What is a Stepped Frequency Radar Signal?" ruclips.net/video/6JVGb3KpVqs/видео.html and "How does a Radar Track Manoeuvring Targets?" ruclips.net/video/ibvlKTGQ4zQ/видео.html
You even make it clear to me. Thanks a lot for ur work.
Glad to hear that
One of the best explanations. Thanks.
Glad you think so!
can't be explained better than this, so clear.
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you liked it.
Best beamforming explanation I have seen.
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you liked it.
Thanks. It was awesome as I watched it for the second time. In practice, how are these delays adjusted and how do we know (in the receiver) which direction is the direction of interest to adjust those delays? Same question for transmit beamforming.
I've got a video coming out on Monday that gives the equation that relates the direction to the delays. Keep an eye out for it.
@iain_explains Thank you so much. Definitely will be so helpful as always
I never liked a RUclips video as much as i like this one. Indeed, it's the best explanation I have ever heard. Thank you so much for your work Prof. I wish I could have a professor like you in my university.
Thanks so much for your very nice comment. I'm so glad you liked the video.
Thank you Iain, For making such a wonderful videos and providing us a valuable knowledge. Can you make a videos on DSP Filters (IIR and FIR Filters)? It will be very helpful.
Thanks for the suggestion. They're on my "to do" list.
Thanks Mr. Iain for explaining in such an easy way the Beamforming.
Glad it was helpful!
It's just awesome! Didn't know there is a similar beamforming effect in the receiving end as there is in the transmitting side.
Glad I could help!
Glad that I’ve found this channel and yeah best explanation I’ve ever heard
Welcome aboard! I'm glad you liked the explanation.
Thx from korea! BEST explanation!
Glad you think so!
Thank you Iain. Beam forming is an Amazing principle. So by adding multiple antennas (n Antennas) and injecting a delay circuits and adders we can form those shaped zones and select which receiver to have the best reception from specific direction. I imagine that if we have a programmable delay circuits with algorithm to control those delays and selecting the proper antennas then we can control those beams. Is that what is used in space division multiple access? We maybe able also to have intelligent algorithm that senses the RSSI levels, provide feedback to apply combinations of selecting antennas, adders and delay circuits and eventually automatically select the sending location. I wonder if such a thing already exists?
Yes, that's right. It's exactly what happens in MU-MIMO. The process you've described happens in the matrix operations in the receiver (for receive beamforming) and the transmitter (for transmit precoding). See "What is Multi-User MIMO Communications (MU MIMO)?" ruclips.net/video/0ncIWlhsu1A/видео.html
Interesting facts
It's like noise cancellation headphones. But instead of subtracting by having a reversed waveform, it adds.
And just like good noise cancelling headphones, it has to know the distance between the microphones and earpieces.
excellant!such a clear lecture to talk about beamforming. Thx very much
Glad it was helpful!
Wow. That is the best explanation I’ve ever heard. Thank you so much.
That's great to hear. Glad it was helpful!
awesome explanation, I thought at the begneinggg how hw said best explanation , but he worth the name love the material Mr.Iain
Glad you liked it!
Dear Sir your videos are brilliant. Your explanations very clear .Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Thanks for your nice comment. I'm glad the videos are helping.
Thank you! Professor! You are really good at teaching and educating!
You are very welcome. I'm glad you are finding the videos helpful.
I just saw your other video! Will watch that now!
Great. I hope it helps.
Thanks for explaination, now I'm wondering how the transceiver actually tunes to specific wireless client by selecting right delays?. Is it still in PHY or MAC layer ? Also how fast is the switching ? As if we have 4x4 router and two typical 2x2 clients how router assures signal from 3rd device will be still handled without comprising value added of two existing MU-MIMO clients?
The best explanation I've seen 👏
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.
Thank you for the great video, it really helps a lot!
Glad it helped!
Excellent info. I wanted to understand beamforming microphone this explains a lot!
Glad it was helpful!
sir you're so unbelievably amazing ❤❤. truly thank you
So nice of you
Best explanation in existence.
Thanks. I'm really glad you liked it.
phenomenal explanation
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.
Thank you very much for the explanation.
I have a question. Antennas are fixed on a wireless device. So, the distance between antennas will be the same. How does it work for different frequencies?
Excellent question! The form of beamforming that maximises SNR (that I describe in this video) is inherently narrow band. In practice it doesn't have to be exactly half a wavelength separation, and there are approaches to designing beams that are wide band, but they come with a performance penalty in terms of SNR.
Hi Iain. Thank you for explaining this concept in such a beautiful manner. This video has proved very helpful for me in my first job.
I'm so glad it was helpful!
frankly it is the best explanation
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.
This is really good one 👍
I'm glad you like it
Woah, that was incredibly well explained!
Thanks. Glad you found it useful.
Such a simple yet clear explanation, which even hour long fancy videos are unable to provide
Glad you liked it
6:40 Shouldn't that be 3 time the delay (and not twice) if we want the signal from non-equatorial source?
I like the simplicity!
So… I created a machine monitoring daq using LabVIEW, mics and NI cRIO’s… about 4 months into monitoring a dyno i intuitively came up with this concept not knowing I stumbled upon beam forming by looking at hundreds of high speed wave form data…
Thank you sir for plainly consolidating my mad-ness!
I'm so glad my video helped you.
You are very gooooood🌷🌷
Great explanation! You just picked up another subscriber....
Welcome aboard!
So when the signal is cancelled out on the incoming transmission.. what happens to it...? Just got a bit confused at this point? How is a beam formed if it's cancelled out? Or... Have I misinterpreted what you have said?
Yes, you're right, "cancellation" does take a bit of thinking about. One example in real life is at surf beaches, when a wave is coming in to the shore, and another previous wave is going back down the sand causing a ripple in the reverse direction. When the two waves meet, the peaks of the incoming wave add to the peaks of the returning wave creating a splash. But also, the peaks of the incoming wave are "cancelled" by the troughs of the returning wave, causing the water to be smooth a those points.
u explained way better than my professor, thank you sir🥰.
Happy to help
A video with basic beamforming techniques for MIMO(or massive MIMO) systems would be helpful.
Here's a link to my new video on MIMO: ruclips.net/video/TC19gMQ6azE/видео.html
Best explanation ! Thank you !
Glad it was helpful!
Fantastic lecture. Thank you.
I'm glad you liked it.
Great explanations. Is it possible to visualize near field beamforming (beam focusing) in similar way?
Yes, but in that case the delays are not constant between different antenna elements.
based on this explanation, is it reasonable to assume that this is how wakeword detection works? the device is listening on all microphones for the wakeword, uses it to calculate the optimum delay to "orient" the beam towards the audio source, then captures and analyses the detected audio?
Perfect explanation. Thank you Sir!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you. The best explanation
Glad it was helpful!
Please upload more video on analog and digital communication, radios,SatCom,latest technologies
Thanks for the topic suggestions. I've got them on my "to do" list (but it's getting to be a long list ...)
Thank you Pr. for this helpful video. Could you explain Beamspace in MIMO.
Best regards
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll put it on my "to do" list.
Great explanation. I expect that by changing the delay one could cause the beam to sweep.
Yes, that's what's called Adaptive Beamforming.
I came here for fun, who else
Thanku sir...understood perfectly
Great. I'm glad it helped.
great video, thank you!
Thanks for perfect explanation sir
Glad you liked it.
indeed the best explanation
Glad you think so!
This Beamforming, given fixed delay, is good only for fixed (position) signal source and fixed receiver - not for moving source or moving receiver, otherwise it will be hard to tune the delay in a way to match the movement of the source, or receiver. Has this technology "Beamforming" been used for moving source, or receiver, at all in practical application?
Yes, that's right. When a source/target moves you need to adapt the delays. Then it gets called "Adaptive Beamforming".
I know beam forming from acoustic cameras that are using an microphone array to create a picture where you can see the source of noise. This allows to analyze what part of a machine, car, plane and such is emitting what noise. Might be a topic for another video.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll add it to my "to do" list.
Very illustrative and logical thank you 😊
Glad it was helpful!
Great explanation, Iain
Glad you liked it
Thank you for the introduction
You're welcome
Good explanation… 😊 thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Very useful. Very well explained.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks mate for the explanation. Makes sense.
Glad it helped
Thks
hello, I'm from Brazil and I wanted to know if beamforming also improves latency/ping in online games, thanks
The distance between the center of two patches should be d or the distance between two adjacent sides of each patch?
This is assuming ideal isotropically radiating point source elements (not flat patches). In practice, the spacing that maximises radiation efficiency will depend on the shape and size of the patches, as well as the locations of surrounding back plains etc.
very nice
Thank you so much for the precise and clear explanation on this topic.
I would appreciate it if you explain about coodbook based precoder and combiner in mmwave, too. I have faced some troubles understanding this topic.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've added it to my "to do" list.
Beam forming technique is only used into half duplex system?
Thanks a ton Ian. Not what I thought beamforming was. Excellent explanation of the theory of beamforming. Do you offer any in house training?
I'm glad you liked the video. I'm not offering in-house training or tutoring at the moment, but potentially will in future. For now, the videos will have to do. Please do let me know if there are particular topics that you'd like to hear more about if I haven't covered it so far. Check out my web page which shows a fully categorised list of the videos: iaincollings.com
Hi, I am a student with master's degree studying communication in south korea.
Thank you very much for the good lecture.
You are the hope of the wireless communication.
I have two questions.
1. If i want to implement a kind of antenna diversity through the two antennas on the receiving side,
It is understood that when the awgn noise added to the signal from the two antennas is different, a gain of 3 dB is obtained.
As you explained in the video, when i understand physically, don't the signals entered by the two antennas have the same awgn noise? That's the question I had in mind.
Since there is a benefit from beamforming, I think it would be right to have different awgn noise, but I don't understand this clearly.
2. According to what i saw in the MIMO channel-related textbook, if the angle spread (dispersion of PAS) is narrow, that is, if the reception beam is narrow, the correlation with adjacent antennas increases.
It states that channel capacity and divercity gains are reduced.
Performing beamforming on the transmitting side will cause the beam to be browned, which is expected to result in relatively large correlation between the receiving side adjacent antennas.
Then, is it okay to understand that it is a technology that has advantages in terms of energy concentration during tx beamforming, but also has disadvantages because of the high correlation?
Thank you.
I am the author of this comment.
dispersion of PAS (X)
variance of PAS (O)
It all depends on the characteristics of the channel. And I'm not sure you're understanding about the noise. Noise is introduced primarily by amplifiers in the RF "front-ends" of the transmitter and receiver. If each antenna is connected to its own amplifier, then the noise will be different for each antenna's signal. This video might help: "What are Spatial Diversity and Spatial Multiplexing in MIMO?" ruclips.net/video/MNA0xn7EeyY/видео.html and "
Tq sir ! love from india
I'm glad you're finding the channel helpful!
amazing explanation very clear! but if im using only one channel/device does it better to turn off beamforming for smoother connection? thank you!
I'm not sure what you're asking, sorry. Beamforming is a technique for increasing the radiated/received power in a particular direction. In its most basic version, it is tuned for a specific channel/user. In more advanced implementations, it can be tuned for multiple channels/users.
I can understand the basic princple of beamforming form your video, but I have a question.
Consider 24Ghz freq MIMO radar system, which has the spatial distace between Rx antenna is lambda/2.
To acheive +50 degree digital beamforming, the delay time should be (lambda/2)*sin(50degree)/c = 1.6e-11 sec.
So, if I want to make 50 degree beamforming, the minimum sampling rate of MIMO system should be 1.6e11 Hz, which is too high to make a real system.
I want to know how can I solve this problem.. Thanks.
great video, thanks
Thank you sir, for all of your videos; those are amazing😍. I have one doubt if we consider BS and UE then beamforming is used at BS only or at the UE side or both?
It can be used by any communication device that has multiple antennas. So yes, it can be used at both the Base Station and the User Equipment, if they have multiple antennas.
@@iain_explains Thank you 😊
Hi there Iain, is this what is called a phased array?
Yes, that's right.
Could you use this as an alternative to a dish antenna?
Yes, that's right.
@@iain_explains The UK used to have British Satellite Broadcast system in the early 90s which used a phased array on a flat square plate ("squarial") which functioned the same as a dish.