Intercluster beamforming using selection combining

Collaborative beamforming promises important advantages for networks of power-constrained nodes. Realizing these gains requires significant levels of synchronization among transmitters which limits the applications of the technology and increases complexity. This paper considers a selection combining approach to relax synchronization requirements for intercluster beamforming. Simulations demonstrate that synchronization error results in a channel modeled well by Rayleigh fading. For small receive and large transmit clusters, the behavior is very close to that predicted, and selection combining provides significant benefits.