FREQUENCIES in the 20–60-GHz range are being considered for their wider allocated bandwidths and compact sized devices [1], [2]. However, path loss and absorption due to
typical building materials are higher at these frequencies than at cellular and PCS frequencies [1]. To compensate for this loss and reduce multipath spread, multibeam antennas have been considered [3], [4]. Driessen [5] showed that, with proper placement and pointing of a 15 beamwidth horn antenna at one end of the link and with a 45 or 70 beamwidth antenna at the other end of the link, 622 Mb/s BPSK and 1.244 Gb/s QPSK links without equalization could be established at 19 GHz with error-free performance for
many indoor locations. Gans et al. [6] concluded from a link budget analysis based
on a ray-tracing model that beam forming arrays with at least 50 elements at both ends of the link are required to achieve the long range and high bit rate of Driessen’s [5]. They also considered the required number of taps in a decision feedback equalizer
(DFE) versus the beam width, assuming an omnidirectional antenna at the user transmitter and a continuously steerable directionalantenna at the base station (BS) receiver [6]. In this paper, we consider the same general architecture as the second Gans model described above, but for a shorter range (50 ft) and a lower bit rate of 100 Mb/s. We assume a certain configuration of four linear beamformers (only discrete
beam-pointing choices) and a statistical (azimuth-only) propagation model that emphasizes clustering of paths in angle and