analog beamforming (ABF)

When forming the antenna reception characteristic, beamforming, a distinction is made between analog beamforming (ABF) and digital beamforming( DBF).

In analog beamforming, the received signals of the individual antenna elements are directly summed in their amplitude and phase position. The summed signal is then mixed to a lower frequency so that it can be digitized by an AD converter. This, the digitization of the sum signal, is the main difference between analog and digital beamforming, where it is not the sum signal that is digitized, but the individual signals from the various antenna elements.