What Is Beamforming
Beamforming uses an array of antennas with carefully controlled phase relationships to focus RF energy in a chosen direction. Compared with an omnidirectional antenna, beamforming adds 6–10 dB of gain in the desired direction.
Application to Industrial Bluetooth
In a distribution room with many meters, beamforming at the gateway focuses energy toward each meter sequentially. This effectively doubles or triples the achievable range compared with omnidirectional transmission.
Field-Test Results
In a Rynon field test with a 4-element beamforming array at the gateway, line-of-sight range to a Bluetooth power meter exceeded 250 m, with packet success rate above 99.5%.
Trade-Offs
Beamforming requires sequential polling (one meter at a time), which increases latency. For metering applications, this is acceptable. For real-time control, it is not.