Wireless Personal Communications (2023) 130:1045–1069

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-023-10319-1

Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe

Reduction Using a Novel Modified Sparrow Search Algorithm

Qiankun Liang1 · Huaning Wu1 · Bin Chen1

Accepted: 15 February 2023 / Published online: 24 March 2023

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023

Abstract
A high gain antenna array with reduced side lobe level (SLL) needs to be optimized and
designed to meet the requirement of modern wireless communication systems. To achieve
this goal, a newly developed natural heuristic algorithm namely sparrow search algorithm
(SSA) and its modification are introduced and utilized to the field of electromagnetic opti-
mization for the first time in this paper. Simulation results over several different exam-
ples of the linear antenna array (LAA) and circular antenna array (CAA) design problem
have been presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the modified SSA.
The design results obtained by modified SSA showed greater advantages than those certain
classical and well-known algorithms like particle swarm optimization (PSO), whale opti-
mization algorithm (WOA) and grasshopper optimization algorithm (GOA), in a statisti-
cally meaningful way.

Keywords Linear antenna array · Circular antenna array · Sparrow search algorithm · Side
lobe level · Natural heuristic algorithm · Radiation pattern

1 Introduction

The radiation effect of a single element antenna is fixed and limited, which cannot meet
the requirements of high gain or high directivity radiation pattern, especially in medium
and long distance communication [1]. In order to improve the communication signal qual-
ity, antenna arrays composed of multiple antennas are widely used in mobile and wireless
communication systems. However, the design of antenna array is critical to the commu-
nication performance and capabilities of these systems [2]. LAA is a kind of relatively
basic and common geometric configuration, which has gained interest of many researchers
because of its geometrical simplicity and wide range of applications. For a given applica-
tion scenario, it is necessary to choose the appropriate array with different radiation effects
[3]. All antenna elements are arranged into a circular ring, thus forming a CAA. Compared
with the LAA, CAA has many advantages, for example it can scan a beam azimuthally
through 360° while keeping almost no change in the beamwidth or the gain. Although it

* Huaning Wu
wuhuaning007@163.com
1
College of Electronic Engineering, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, China

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Vol.:(0123456789)
1046 Q. Liang et al.

has been widely concerned and applied, it also inevitably has some disadvantages, such as
higher consumption of array elements and higher SLL relative to the main lobe [4].
The existence of sidelobe means that the antenna array will also radiate and receive
energy in the undesired directions, resulting in the waste of energy, which is also the rea-
son of communication fading [5]. In the past few decades, we can find many references of
natural heuristic algorithms with applications in suppressing the SLL of LAA and CAA.
The implement of genetic algorithm (GA) in optimizing antenna array can be traced back
to literature [6] at the earliest. With the development of computer technologies and compu-
tational electromagnetics, multiple approaches are there other than GA, such as simulated
annealing (SA) [7], particle swarm optimization (PSO) [8], cuckoo optimization algorithm
(COA) [9], ant colony optimization (ACO) [10], symbiotic organisms search (SOS) [11],
biogeography based optimization (BBO) [12], firefly algorithm (FA) [13], moth flame
optimization (MFO) [14], invasive weed optimization (IWO) [15], cat swarm optimization
(CSO) [16], atom search optimization (ASO) [17]. These algorithms have been success-
fully applied in this field. However, finding and researching more efficient algorithms is
still a problem worthy of attention in the electromagnetic optimization.
Inspired from foraging and anti-predation behavior of sparrows, a new swarm intelligent
optimization algorithm namely SSA has been developed by Xue et al. in 2020 [18]. Com-
pared with other representative natural heuristic algorithms in recent years, SSA shows
excellent performance and strong competitiveness [19]. Once proposed, it has attracted the
attention of many scholars, and has been successfully applied to numerous problems in
different fields of research up to now. For example, reference [20] optimized and updated
the parameter information of obstacle avoidance data of UAV flying in three-dimensional
dynamic complex environment by SSA, and obtained the optimized sample data. On the
problem of multi-component fault diagnosis of wheelset bearings, by introducing SSA to
optimize the parameters of each fault component, the issue of adaptive determination of
impulsive atoms constructed in the shift invariant impulsive dictionary is solved [21]. In
order to effectively identify the operation state of converter transformer in HVDC trans-
mission system, the parameters of deep belief network (DBN) are optimized by SSA to
form the SSA-DBN model in [22].
In view of the shortcomings of SSA, some scholars also put forward a series of improve-
ment strategies, which have been applied in practical problems. For instance, Liu et al. pro-
poses an improved algorithm called BSSA, which is used to input the extracted features of
brain tumor magnetic resonance images into the classification based on optimized convo-
lutional neural network (CNN) for final diagnosis, so as to improve the efficiency of CNN
in terms of consistency and accuracy [23]. In [24], the global optimization ability of SSA
is enhanced by introducing logistic mapping, self-adaptive hyper-parameters and mutation
operator. The parameters of stochastic configuration network (SCN) are optimized by using
this improved algorithm, and the CSSA-SCN model is established. Reference [25] tak-
ing the operation cost of microgrid cluster system as the optimization objective, a chaotic
SSA based on Bernoulli chaotic map, dynamic adaptive weighting, Cauchy mutation and
reverse learning is proposed, which improves the economic benefit of microgrid cluster by
nearly 20%.
Aiming at the optimization and design of LAA and CAA, a new modified SSA is pro-
posed in this paper. The main contributions are listed as follows,

• Three different improvement strategies are adopted to further enhance the optimization
performance of SSA.

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Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1047

• It is the first time that SSA and its modification have been introduced and utilized to
the electromagnetics and antenna community.
• A few different scenarios of both LAA and CAA for the maximum SLL reduction
with first null beamwidth (FNBW) constraint are designed.
• An additional constraint on the total length of the antenna array in LAA cases is
considered to ensure that features of beam pattern are preserved.
• The numerical results with several classical and popular algorithms for the same
problems are compared.

The rest of this paper is arranged as follows. The standard SSA and the proposed
modification are detailed in the Sect. 2. Section 3 shows the system model and formu-
lates the maximum SLL reduction problem. The results and discussion of a few design
cases employing different algorithms are presented in Sect. 4. Finally, Sect. 5 draws the
conclusion of this paper.

2 The Sparrow Search Algorithm and Its Modification

2.1 Standard Sparrow Search Algorithm

SSA has the characteristics of simple implementation, few control parameters and
high expansibility. Its mathematical models can be divided into three roles: producers,
scroungers and scouters, according to their respective behavior mechanism. Assuming
that there are N sparrows
[ in a D-dimensional search space, the position[of the ith sparrow
can be given by Xi = Xi,1 , Xi,2 , … , Xi,D and the fitness value is Fi = Fi,1 , Fi,2 , … , Fi,D ,
] ]

where i = 1, 2, … , N . The following is an introduction of the three updating methods.

2.1.1 Producers

Producers are responsible for exploring in the given search space and providing forag-
ing directions and areas for the whole population, so they have better fitness values. The
mathematical model of producers is formulated as follows,
� �
⎧ t i
X
⎪ i,j ⋅ exp − , R2 < ST
(1)
t+1 𝛼 ⋅ tmax
Xi,j =⎨
⎪ X t + Q, R ≥ ST
⎩ i,j 2

where t indicates the current iteration and tmax indicates the maximum number of iterations,
which represents the termination condition of the algorithm. The position of ith sparrow in
the jth dimension is denoted by Xi,j. α is a uniform random number in (0,1], and Q is a ran-
dom number subject to standard normal distribution. R2 and ST define the alarm value and
the safety threshold respectively, where R2 ∈[0,1] and ST ∈[0,1]. If R2 < ST, it means that
the population has not found the danger of predators at this time and can conduct extensive
search. R2≧ST indicates that the scouters have detected the presence of a predator and all
sparrows have to fly to another safe area quickly.

13
1048 Q. Liang et al.

2.1.2 Scroungers

Scroungers are sparrows except all the producers in the population. They follow the pro-
ducers to obtain food and will compete with the producers, so as to improve their predation
rate. The behavior of scroungers can be defined by the following formula.

t
� �
Xworst − Xi,j
⎧
⎪ Q ⋅ exp , i > N∕2
⎪
t+1
Xi,j =⎨ i2 (2)
⎪ t+1 � t t+1 � +
⎪ Xp + ��Xi,j − XP �� ⋅ A , i ≤ N∕2
⎩

where Xworst represents the global worst position of the current population, and Xp repre-
sents the best position occupied by the producers in the current iteration process. A is a
one-dimensional matrix with elements of ± 1, and A+ = (AAT)−1. If i > N/2, it indicates that
the ith scrounger with low fitness is in a state of hunger at this time and needs to expand
his flight range to obtain food. If i ≤ N/2, the ith scrounger will find a random place near the
optimal position to forage.

2.1.3 Scouters

Scouters are randomly generated between the producers and the scroungers, which can
perceive whether there is danger in the foraging area. Its mathematical expression can be
described as follows,

⎧ X t + 𝛽 ⋅ �X t − X t �, F > F
⎪ best � i,j
� best �� i g

(3)
t+1 ⎪
⎛ �X t − X t � ⎞
Xi,j =⎨
� �
t i,j worst �
⎪ Xi,j + K ⋅ ⎜ �� � ⎟, Fi = Fg
⎪ ⎜ Fi − Fw + 𝜀⎠
⎟
⎩ ⎝

where Xbest represents the global optimal position of the current population, corresponding
to Xworst.β is a normal distributed random number used as a step size control parameter. K
indicates the movement direction of sparrows which lies between the range of [− 1,1]. Fi,
Fg and Fw represent the fitness value of the ith sparrow, the global optimal and worst fitness
value of the current population, respectively. 𝜀 is a minimal constant used to avoid zero-
division error. If Fi > Fg, it means that the sparrow is in an unfavorable position, vulnerable
to predators and needs to move to a safe area. If Fi = Fg, it indicates that the sparrow in the
middle of the population is aware of the danger and needs to be close to other sparrows to
reduce the risk of predation.

2.2 Modified Sparrow Search Algorithm

2.2.1 Homogeneous Chaotic System

The quality of the initial solution is crucial for the algorithm to find the optimal solution. In
the range of feasible solutions, chaotic sequences can traverse all states without repetition,

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Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1049

which is widely used in population initialization of optimization algorithms [26]. As a ran-

dom phenomenon, chaos has the advantages of ergodicity, inherent regularity and long-
term unpredictability. It is concluded that the homogeneous chaotic system has better ran-
domness in reference [27]. Its function is presented as follows,

⎧ 𝜇(t + 1) = 3.5𝜇(t)2 + 3.3𝜇(t) − 0.265

(4)
⎪
1 7 33
� �
⎪ X(t + 1) = 𝜋 arcsin − 4 𝜇(t + 1) − 40
⎨
⎩
[ ]
where μ is the initialization sequence drawn from − 7370
1
, 10 , and X is completely chaotic in
[ ]
−2, 2 .
1 1

2.2.2 Adaptive Inertia Weight

Two processes of global exploration and local exploitation are included in all natural heu-
ristic algorithms. A good balance between the global exploration capability and the local
exploitation capability is a must for an efficient algorithm [28]. From the basic principle of
standard SSA, we can find that the producers directly affects whether the population can
find the optimal solution during the searching. Therefore, the inertia weight w, as shown in
(5), is introduced to adjust them.
( )
t
w = wmin + (wmax − wmin ) ⋅ rand(1) ⋅ exp − (5)
tmax

The value of wmax is set to 0.1 and wmin is 0.01 in this paper. As the number of itera-
tions increases, the inertia weight decreases adaptively. In the early stage of search, a larger
weight w can ensure to search favorable regions in the global range, and strengthen the
global exploration ability. Sparrow individuals can perform a fine search near the extreme
points with a smaller step size in the later stage of search, and strengthen the local exploita-
tion ability, so that the algorithm has a greater probability of converging to the global opti-
mal value. The update formula of the producers’ position is modified as follows,
� �
⎧ t i
⎪ Xi,j ⋅ exp − , R2 < ST
(6)
t+1 w ⋅ 𝛼 ⋅ tmax
Xi,j =⎨
⎪ X t + Q ⋅ L, R ≥ ST
⎩ i,j 2

2.2.3 Improved Boundary Constraint

In the standard SSA, the processing strategy for sparrows overstepping the boundary is
generally shown as follows,
{
t+1
Ub, Xi,j > Ub
(7)
t+1
Xi,j = t+1
Lb, Xi,j < Lb

where Ub and Lb respectively represent the upper and lower boundary values of the opti-
mized variables. For individuals that oversteps the boundary, this method directly places

13
1050 Q. Liang et al.

them at the boundary of the search range. It will result in the decrease of population diver-
sity if there are more sparrows overstepping the boundary in the iterative process [29]. The
strategy of improved boundary constraint handling is shown in (8).
∗
Xi,j = Xbest + |Xbest − Xgood | ⋅ rand(1) (8)
| |
| |
where Xbest is the global optimal position and Xgood represents the current optimal position.
Sparrows that overstep the boundary will be randomly determined near the global optimal
position, which enhances the diversity of the population to a certain extent and improves
the global optimization capability of the algorithm.
To sum up, the SSA modified by the above strategies is named ISSA, and its optimiza-
tion process is shown in Fig. 1.

3 System Model and Problem Formulation

3.1 System Model

Considering the symmetry of 2N isotropic elements LAA in Fig. 2, the array factor (AF)
can be generally expressed as follows,
N
∑
(9)
( )
AF(𝜑) = 2 In cos kxn cos(𝜑) + 𝜓n
n=1

In the above equation, k = 2π/λ is the wave number. In, xn and ψn respectively denote the
current amplitude weight, position and phase of the nth element. φ symbolizes the azimuth
angle, which is defined as the angle with respect to the positive x-axis.
The CAA of N isotropic element shown in Fig. 3, are non-uniformly distributed on the
circle with R as radius in x–y plane. The AF can be expressed as follows,
N
∑
(10)
([ ( ) ])
AF(𝜃, 𝜑) = In exp j kR sin(𝜃) cos 𝜑 − 𝜑n + 𝜓n
i=1

where θ symbolizes the elevation angle measured from the positive z-axis. The parameters
kR and φn in (10) can be given as,
2𝜋 ∑N
kR = R= d
i=1 i
(11)
𝜆

n
∑
2𝜋 di
i=1 (12)
𝜑n =
kR
where di is the arc distance between elements i and i − 1. In particular, d1 represents the arc
distance between the ­1st element and the nth element. When the main lobe of radiation pat-
tern is in the direction of φ0, the required phase of nth element can be determined as,

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Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1051

Fig. 1  Flow chart of ISSA

(13)
( ) ( )
𝜓n = −kR sin 𝜃0 cos 𝜑0 − 𝜑n

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1052 Q. Liang et al.

Fig. 2  Geometric distribution of 2N-element LAA

Fig. 3  Geometric distribution of N-element CAA​

Without any loss of generality, set φ0 and θ0 to 0° and 90° respectively. Therefore, the AF
of CAA can be rewritten in simplified form as,
N
∑
(14)
( [ ( ) ( )])
AF(𝜑) = In exp jkR cos 𝜑 − 𝜑n − cos 𝜑0 − 𝜑n
i=1

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Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1053

3.2 Problem Formulation

The goal of the optimization is to suppress the maximum SLL while taking the inter-element
spacing or the current amplitude weight as optimization variables. Therefore, the fitness func-
tion can be formulated as:

� � �� ⎫
�AF 𝜑SL � ⎪
⎧
(15)
⎪
min fitness = max ⎨20 log10 � �
�� ⎬
� �
⎪ �AF 𝜑ML � ⎪
⎩ � �⎭

s.t.𝜑ML = arg max |AF(𝜑)|, 𝜑 ∈ [0, 𝜋] (16)

𝜑SL ∈ [0, 𝜑FN1 ] ∪ [𝜑FN2 , 𝜋] (17)

0 < di < 𝜆, ∀i ∈ N (18)

0 < Ii < 1, ∀i ∈ N (19)

where 𝜑SL and 𝜑ML represent the region of side lobe and main lobe respectively. In the case
of CAA, 𝜑SL ∈ [−𝜋, 𝜑FN1 ] ∪ [𝜑FN2 , 𝜋] versus φ over the range [− 180°, 180°]. 𝜑FN1 and
𝜑FN2 are the first nulls of the pattern, and the FNBW of the beam pattern can be determined
by them. Constraint (18) and (19) define the range in optimizing the inter-element spacing
and current amplitude. In order to maintain the FNBW to the maximum extent, 𝜑FN1 and
𝜑FN2 are respectively set to 80° and 100° for the 12-element LAA, which is consistent with
the uniform array. Correspondingly, for the CAA of 8, 12 and 16 elements, 𝜑FN1 is limited
to − 34°, − 23° and − 17°, and 𝜑FN2 is 34°, 23° and 17°.

Table 1  Parameters of different Algorithm Parameter Value

algorithms
PSO [30, 31] Individual learning factor c1 2
Social learning factor c2 2
Inertia weight w 1.05
WOA [32] Variable a 2→0
Constant defining logarithmic spiral shape b 1
GOA [33] Minimum reduction factor cmin 0.00004
Maximum reduction factor cmax 1
Attraction intensity f 0.5
Attractive length scale l 1.5
SSA [18] Number of producers PNum 20%
Number of scouters SNum 10%
Safety threshold ST 0.8

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1054 Q. Liang et al.

4 Results and Discussion

In order to evaluate the performance of ISSA for maximum SLL reduction with FNBW
constraint, several different scenarios will be conducted. The results are compared with
those obtained by conventional, PSO, WOA, GOA and SSA. The parameters’ values
for these benchmark algorithms are in accordance with the original papers, as shown in
Table 1. The population size of all algorithms is set to 30, and the number of iterations
is 500, for fairness. All numerical experiments are implemented on Intel(R) Core(TM)
i5-9400U CPU @ 2.90 GHz with 8 GB RAM by means of MATLAB.

4.1 Optimization and Design of LAA

In this subsection, optimization for different variables for 12-element LAA has been
presented. An additional constraint on the total length of the antenna array is required
to preserve the features such as the main lobe shape and beam width. As shown in the
following formula,

⎧ x = 0.25𝜆
⎪ 1
⎨ (2N − 1)d (20)
⎪ xN = 2
⎩

In order to ensure that one antenna pair within the array satisfies Nyquist spatial sam-
pling, the spacing between the first two elements on both sides of the y-axis is fixed at
0.5λ. The Nth element is fixed at. xN = (2N 2- 1)d to minimize main lobe distortion, where
d = 0.5λ corresponding to the default spacing of the uniform LAA [34]. As a result, the
positions of the first and last elements on both sides of the antenna array are fixed, thus
the dimensionality of the optimization problem is reduced to 2N-2.

Fig. 4  3D radiation patterns of 12-element LAA before and after ISSA optimization a Before optimization
b After optimization

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Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1055

Table 2  Spacing-only optimization results of 12-element LAA by different algorithms

Algorithm [x1, x2, …, xN] in λ Maximum SLL (dB) FNBW(°)

Conv [0.2500, 0.7500, 1.2500, 1.7500, 2.2500, 2.7500] − 13.0571 19.12

PSO [0.2500, 0.5157, 1.0138, 1.4101, 2.0424, 2.7500] − 19.7093 23.36
WOA [0.2500, 0.5642, 1.0543, 1.3843, 1.9988, 2.7500] − 18.4471 23.36
GOA [0.2500, 0.5241, 1.0215, 1.4375, 2.0615, 2.7500] − 19.9968 22.96
SSA [0.2500, 0.5172, 1.0136, 1.4269, 2.0525, 2.7500] − 20.0314 23.36
ISSA [0.2500, 0.5153, 1.0114, 1.4239, 2.0500, 2.7500] − 20.0392 23.36

Fig. 5  2D radiation patterns and convergence characteristics of 12-element LAA optimized by different
algorithms. a Radiation patterns. b Convergence characteristics

4.1.1 Scenario 1

In the first scenario, ISSA is used for maximum SLL reduction of a 12-element LAA by
spacing-only method. Figure 4 depicts the 3D radiation patterns of 12-element LAA before
and after ISSA optimization. It can be seen intuitively that the maximum SLL is effectively
reduced after optimization. The 2D radiation pattern obtained using ISSA in terms of the
optimized positions in Table 2 of the median run is portrayed in Fig. 5. For the sake of
comparison, the radiation patterns obtained by using conventional, PSO, WOA, GOA and
SSA are also presented in the same figure. Note that the conventional refer to the antenna
array maintaining uniform amplitude with inter-element spacing fixed to 0.5λ. Figure 5b
illustrates the convergence characteristics of the five algorithms. The maximum SLL by
ISSA is − 20.0392 dB, which is approximately a 7 dB improvement over the conventional
maximum SLL of − 13.0571 dB.

4.1.2 Scenario 2

In this scenario, ISSA is used for maximum SLL reduction of a 12-element LAA by
amplitude-only method. The 2D radiation patterns for ISSA compared to other algorithms
like conventional, PSO, WOA, GOA and SSA are illustrated in Fig. 6a. The convergence

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1056 Q. Liang et al.

Fig. 6  2D radiation patterns and convergence characteristics of 12-element LAA optimized by different
algorithms. a Radiation patterns. b Convergence characteristics

Table 3  amplitude-only optimization results of 12-element by different algorithms

Algorithm [I1, I2, …, IN] (normalized) Maximum SLL (dB) FNBW(°)

Conv [1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000] − 13.0571 19.12

PSO [1.0000, 0.9902, 0.8051, 0.6943, 0.5312, 0.5707] − 21.4862 23.76
WOA [1.0000, 0.9927, 0.7703, 0.7284, 0.5808, 0.5011] − 21.0683 23.76
GOA [1.0000, 0.9992, 0.8216, 0.6480, 0.6701, 0.4574] − 20.8716 23.76
SSA [1.0000, 0.9168, 0.8365, 0.6637, 0.5335, 0.5575] − 21.7021 23.56
ISSA [1.0000, 0.9396, 0.8272, 0.6770, 0.5110, 0.5648] − 22.1378 23.76

characteristics for different algorithms are presented in Fig. 6b. Table 3 presents the opti-
mized current amplitudes, maximum SLL, and the corresponding FNBW of this case. The
current amplitude weights are normalized, and the obtained amplitude is maximum at the
center while decreasing successively to the edge elements, which is feasible to the use of
power dividers [35]. Compared with the results of spacing-only method, it is not difficult
to find that each algorithm can get a lower maximum SLL by amplitude-only method while
maintaining uniform spacing. In order to further observe whether there is synergy between
spacing optimization and amplitude optimization, the joint optimization of spacing and
amplitude is carried out in the next scenario.

4.1.3 Scenario 3

This scenario illustrates the design of 12-element LAA by optimizing the inter-element
spacing and current amplitude at the same time. 2D radiation patterns obtained with differ-
ent algorithms are shown in Fig. 7a. The convergence characteristics of the five algorithms
in Fig. 7b, which reflects the change of the maximum SLL with the number of iterations,
clearly demonstrates the attractive advantages in convergence precision as well as con-
vergence rate. Table 4 displays the results in terms of the optimized positions and ampli-
tudes of the elements obtained by different algorithms. As stated previously, it is worthy
of note that the ISSA can be able to locate lower maximum SLL than the spacing-only and

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Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1057

Fig. 7  2D radiation patterns and convergence characteristics of 12-element LAA optimized by different
algorithms a Radiation patterns b Convergence characteristics

the amplitude-only methods within the same number of iterations from the above results.
Therefore, in order to obtain better optimization effect, the inter-element spacing and cur-
rent amplitude are optimized simultaneously in the following CAA design scenarios.

4.2 Optimization and Design of CAA​

4.2.1 Scenario 4

This scenario demonstrates the application of ISSA to optimize the arc distance between
the elements and the current amplitude of 8-element CAA. The 3D radiation patterns
before and after ISSA optimization are shown in Fig. 8, which directly reflect the reduc-
tion of SLL. Figure 9 represents the 2D radiation patterns and the convergence charac-
teristics for ISSA compared with other methods. The optimization results for these algo-
rithms are given in Table 5. The maximum SLL for 8-element CAA, which is obtained
by conventional, PSO, WOA, GOA, SSA and ISSA, are − 4.1701 dB, − 10.5516 dB, − 11
.0107 dB, − 11.0544 dB, − 11.3098 dB, − 12.5428 dB, respectively. It can be noticed that
ISSA achieves the lowest maximum SLL under the condition of keeping FNBW basically
unchanged, which demonstrates the optimization capability of ISSA to outperform other
strong techniques.

4.2.2 Scenario 5

In the fifth scenario, 12-element CAA is simulated and analyzed. The 3D radiation patterns
of uniform array and the optimized array are presented in Fig. 10. Figure 11a demonstrates
the 2D radiation patterns for PSO, WOA, GOA, SSA and ISSA compared with conven-
tional antenna array. The convergence characteristic curves are given in Fig. 11b. It is clear
that ISSA can be capable of converging to the optimum value at a relatively fast speed.
Similar to previous scenarios, Table 6 lists the optimized arc distance, current amplitude
and corresponding maximum SLL and FNBW of different algorithms. The maximum SLL
obtained using ISSA in 12-element CAA case is − 13.4459 dB, while − 7.1653 dB, − 11.7
943 dB, − 10.9967 dB, − 12.1779 dB, − 10.3148 dB, for conventional, PSO, WOA, GOA

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13
Table 4  Spacing and amplitude optimization results of 12-element LAA by different algorithms
Algorithm [x1, x2, …, xN] in λ [I1, I2, …, IN] Maximum SLL (dB) FNBW(°)

Conv [0.2500, 0.7500, 1.2500, 1.7500, 2.2500, 2.7500] [1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000] − 13.0571 19.12
PSO [0.2500, 0.7377, 0.8499, 1.4135, 2.0641, 2.7500] [1.0000, 0.5421, 0.5155, 1.0000, 0.7705, 0.6342] − 21.8966 23.56
WOA [0.2500, 0.6478, 1.0118, 1.6030, 2.1485, 2.7500] [1.0000, 0.6613, 0.9294, 0.8745, 0.7397, 0.5894] − 21.3456 23.56
GOA [0.2500, 0.6528, 1.0670, 1.5101, 2.0848, 2.7500] [1.0000, 0.5517, 0.7780, 0.7053, 0.7832, 0.5569] − 21.2850 23.76
SSA [0.2500, 0.5789, 0.9812, 1.4850, 2.0720, 2.7500] [1.0000, 0.6370, 0.9763, 0.8718, 0.8638, 0.7298] − 22.0950 23.56
ISSA [0.2500, 0.6392, 1.1188, 1.4017, 2.0179, 2.7500] [1.0000, 0.8736, 0.7453, 0.6875, 0.9368, 0.7636] − 22.3309 23.56
Q. Liang et al.
Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1059

Fig. 8  3D radiation patterns of 8-element CAA before and after ISSA optimization a Before optimization b
After optimization

Fig. 9  2D radiation patterns and convergence characteristics of 8-element CAA optimized by different algo-
rithms a Radiation patterns b Convergence characteristics

and SSA, respectively. This shows that ISSA can achieve the lowest maximum SLL while
maintaining a substantially constant FNBW among those algorithms.

4.2.3 Scenario 6

In order to measure the optimization ability of ISSA in different dimensions, the optimi-
zation and design of 16-element CAA is illustrated in this scenario. Figure 12 shows the
optimized and unoptimized 3D radiation patterns of 16-element CAA. The hybrid radia-
tion beam patterns for different methods are illustrated in Fig. 13a, b is the convergence
characteristics where the maximum SLL are plotted against the number of iterations. It
can be seen from Table 7 that the maximum SLL of PSO, WOA, GOA, SSA and ISSA are
reduced by 6.3343 dB, 4.4976 dB, 7.0907 dB, 8.6988 dB and 9.6179 dB. Compared with

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13
Table 5  Optimization results of 8-element CAA by different algorithms
Algorithm [d1, d2, …, dN] in λ [I1, I2, …, IN] Maximum SLL (dB) FNBW(°)

Conv [0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000] [1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, − 4.1701 69.84
1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000]
PSO [0.3677, 0.8705, 0.6598, 0.5169, 1.0000, 0.2855, 0.4043, 0.4111] [0.9982, 0.4049, 0.4814, 0.4922, 0.5028, − 10.5516 72.24
0.3797, 1.0000, 0.5186]
WOA [0.3449, 0.8556, 0.7470, 0.5580, 0.4733, 0.4092, 0.6185, 0.4514] [0.9711, 0.4279, 0.9075, 0.5914, 0.8042, − 11.0107 71.04
0.4618, 0.8702, 0.4104]
GOA [0.4150, 0.7912, 0.4055, 0.4153, 0.5367, 0.7597, 0.6787, 0.4588] [0.3307, 0.4642, 0.3285, 0.7458, 0.7871, − 11.0544 71.64
0.3702, 0.4523, 0.2906]
SSA [0.4018, 0.5162, 0.2798, 0.6302, 0.7683, 0.8174, 0.7664, 0.3595] [0.6105, 0.1946, 0.4996, 0.5477, 0.7393, − 11.3098 70.64
0.3103, 0.8229, 0.5569]
ISSA [0.3451, 0.3623, 0.4189, 0.8938, 0.6582, 0.8626, 0.7962, 0.3478] [0.5309, 0.0623, 0.3291, 0.5897, 0.5083, − 12.5428 70.24
0.4201, 0.4616, 0.2062]
Q. Liang et al.
Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1061

Fig. 10  3D radiation patterns of 12-element CAA before and after ISSA optimization a Before optimization
b After optimization

Fig. 11  2D radiation patterns and convergence characteristics of 12-element CAA optimized by different
algorithms a Radiation patterns b Convergence characteristics

conventional CAA, ISSA has the largest reduction. In addition, Table 7 also gives the opti-
mized arc distances, current amplitudes and FNBW obtained by different algorithms. This
16-element CAA case further verifies the advantages of the modified algorithm in antenna
arrays design.

4.3 Stability Test

Considering the randomness of the natural heuristic algorithm, the results of each run are
likely to be different, so it is necessary to discuss and analyze the stability of the algo-
rithms. Since the best value and the worst value can show the exploration ability of the
algorithm, and the mean value and standard deviation (std) can show the accuracy and

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13
Table 6  Optimization results of 12-element CAA by different algorithms
Algorithm [d1, d2, …, dN] in λ [I1, I2, …, IN] Maximum SLL (dB) FNBW(°)

Conv [0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000] [1.0000, − 7.1653 46.22
1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000]
PSO [0.3644, 1.0000, 0.4980, 0.4133, 0.6909, 0.4226, 0.5019, 0.4356, 1.0000, 0.7295, 1.0000, 0.3273] [0.8000, − 11.7943 50.02
0.6256, 0.5843, 0.1717, 0.2210, 1.0000, 0.8000, 0.0000, 0.3706, 0.5386, 0.6312, 0.3693]
WOA [0.1795, 0.3541, 1.0000, 0.7593, 1.0000, 0.4226, 0.5064, 0.3528, 1.0000, 1.0000, 0.7536, 0.3165] [0.4367, − 10.9967 48.42
0.3985, 0.5197, 0.5429, 0.5181, 0.5384, 0.4822, 0.5220, 0.3989, 0.2281, 0.5223, 0.4976]
GOA [0.3557, 0.7448, 0.6087, 0.7693, 0.9973, 0.1473, 0.7445, 0.3295, 0.6036, 0.6856, 0.8435, 0.2610] [0.7048, − 12.1779 48.02
0.2567, 0.4689, 0.5296, 0.6144, 0.5192, 0.2608, 0.7179, 0.1346, 0.7602, 0.8595, 0.4550]
SSA [0.4609, 0.4137, 0.3715, 0.4229, 0.9974, 0.7165, 0.4633, 0.4598, 0.9785, 0.4288, 0.4469, 0.4377] [0.7771, − 10.3148 48.42
0.4256, 0.4054, 0.3952, 0.3651, 0.3963, 0.1937, 0.2964, 0.3594, 0.8146, 0.8134, 0.7715]
ISSA [0.1573, 0.9173, 0.2058, 0.3942, 0.8256, 0.8212, 0.5064, 0.8815, 0.7026, 0.6504, 0.6834, 0.4219] [0.3086, − 13.4459 48.02
0.1827, 0.2907, 0.5037, 0.2568, 0.6598, 0.8211, 0.3582, 0.2015, 0.5417, 0.2071, 0.7478]
Q. Liang et al.
Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1063

Fig. 12  3D radiation patterns of 16-element CAA before and after ISSA optimization a Before optimization
b After optimization

Fig. 13  2D radiation patterns and convergence characteristics of 16-element CAA optimized by different
algorithms a Radiation patterns b Convergence characteristics

stability of the algorithm. Thus, Table 8 presents the statistical results in terms of the best,
the worst and the mean values of the maximum SLL for 25 runs of ISSA and other algo-
rithms as well as the std. As shown, ISSA can fulfill the lowermost mean maximum SLL,
which indicates that the proposed algorithm has higher solution accuracy. The best value
and the worst value are smaller than PSO, WOA, GOA and SSA, which shows that the
algorithm has strong optimization ability. In general, although ISSA fails to achieve the
lowest std, which is slightly inferior to the classical PSO algorithm in some scenarios, it
can offer robust and stable results than WOA, GOA and SSA. In order to visually display
the fluctuation of data, the maximum SLL obtained by different algorithms are depicted as
in Fig. 14 according to the results of each run.

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13
Table 7  Optimization results of 16-element CAA by different algorithms
Algorithm [d1, d2, …, dN] in λ [I1, I2, …, IN] Maximum SLL (dB) FNBW(°)

Conv [0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, 0.5000, − 6.7574 34.62
0.5000, 0.5000] [1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000,
1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000, 1.0000]
PSO [0.1441, 0.3791, 1.0000, 0.6499, 0.7411, 0.8999, 0.6085, 0.4327, 0.4998, 0.5296, 0.6585, 0.2651, 0.6330, 0.6505, − 13.0917 38.42
0.4689, 0.4085] [0.3383, 0.8013, 0.6504, 0.6931, 0.5161, 0.5607, 1.0000, 0.8556, 0.5934, 0.5520, 0.3722, 0.7120,
0.5956, 0.3315, 1.0000, 1.0000]
WOA [0.3103, 0.4298, 0.3850, 0.8412, 0.3506, 0.2622, 0.7536, 0.8332, 0.3393, 0.6137, 0.8331, 0.7955, 0.8351, 0.8332, − 11.2550 38.82
0.2231, 0.3649] [0.6530, 0.2417, 0.5726, 0.4180, 0.5613, 0.6833, 0.5415, 0.4687, 0.7035, 0.6900, 0.0771, 0.5079,
0.2307, 0.1062, 0.4919, 0.5744]
GOA [0.2050, 0.4889, 0.8854, 0.7183, 0.7403, 0.8559, 0.6804, 0.5093, 0.2458, 0.8718, 0.0432, 0.6317, 0.3406, 0.9939, − 13.8481 38.42
0.5674, 0.4625] [0.9613, 0.7812, 0.3900, 0.5244, 0.8125, 0.5237, 0.8886, 0.3387, 0.7496, 0.7366, 0.4239, 0.2085,
0.0611, 0.5729, 0.8729, 0.8422]
SSA [0.5067, 0.6276, 0.4488, 0.4734, 0.4704, 0.3907, 0.9641, 0.5153, 0.4439, 0.4671, 0.9641, 0.8961, 0.4355, 0.4311, − 15.4562 38.22
0.7662, 0.3918] [0.5808, 0.0608, 0.5739, 0.0307, 0.3300, 0.8589, 0.6852, 0.7674, 0.7009, 0.5971, 0.6412, 0.2926,
0.2626, 0.1386, 0.5852, 0.9272]
ISSA [0.4155, 0.4097, 0.7754, 0.3951, 0.2940, 0.6497, 0.8238, 0.6646, 0.4857, 0.5609, 0.8513, 0.6233, 0.6743, 0.8432, − 16.3753 38.42
0.1910, 0.5937] [0.2251, 0.2461, 0.2783, 0.0846, 0.1646, 0.0937, 0.2523, 0.5056, 0.4279, 0.2464, 0.3187, 0.1909,
0.3219, 0.1827, 0.2025, 0.5527]
Q. Liang et al.
Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1065

Table 8  Statistical results of maximum SLL for different algorithms

Scenario No Maximum PSO WOA GOA SSA ISSA
SLL (dB)

Scenario 1 Best − 19.8992 − 19.7233 − 20.0494 − 20.0494 − 20.0494

Worst − 19.3902 − 15.4807 − 16.9522 − 17.4762 − 19.3283
Mean − 19.6795 − 18.0860 − 19.7126 − 19.9291 − 20.0000
Std 0.1189 1.2214 0.7243 0.5009 0.1386
Scenario 2 Best − 21.6757 − 21.7909 − 21.8182 − 21.8648 − 22.1430
Worst − 21.2779 − 20.4077 − 19.1246 − 21.0684 − 21.8559
Mean − 21.4618 − 21.1447 − 20.8455 − 21.7040 − 22.1038
Std 0.0898 0.3451 0.6307 0.1639 0.0670
Scenario 3 Best − 22.0651 − 22.0952 − 22.1688 − 22.2571 − 22.3570
Worst − 20.8360 − 20.1751 − 19.3239 − 21.4801 − 21.8496
Mean − 21.8393 − 21.2795 − 21.2063 − 22.0666 − 22.3074
Std 0.2155 0.5882 0.8175 0.1769 0.1016
Scenario 4 Best − 10.7101 − 11.5235 − 11.1567 − 11.5566 − 12.6128
Worst − 10.3341 − 10.3229 − 10.6520 − 10.7404 − 12.3469
Mean − 10.5329 − 11.0297 − 10.9902 − 11.3027 − 12.5331
Std 0.0954 0.3402 0.1432 0.1814 0.0669
Scenario 5 Best − 11.9516 − 11.3860 − 12.6276 − 10.5773 − 13.6365
Worst − 11.3288 − 9.6888 − 11.2778 − 10.0000 − 13.0380
Mean − 11.7171 − 10.8348 − 11.9994 − 10.3218 − 13.4347
Std 0.1886 0.4609 0.3807 0.1711 0.1375
Scenario 6 Best − 13.2619 − 12.2885 − 14.6546 − 15.9575 − 16.6432
Worst − 12.8226 − 9.9885 − 12.0681 − 14.0893 − 15.7745
Mean − 13.0942 − 11.2155 − 13.6999 − 15.3837 − 16.3043
Std 0.1200 0.6417 0.6261 0.4777 0.2287

5 Conclusion

In this work, the optimal approach to design LAA and CAA for the maximum SLL
reduction with FNBW constraint by SSA and its modification is studied. Some improve-
ment strategies including homogeneous chaotic system, adaptive inertia weight and
improved boundary constraint, are incorporated in the standard SSA to enhance the per-
formance. As the results over a few different design scenarios, SSA with the suggested
modifications performs much better in terms of convergence accuracy, convergence
speed and stability. PSO, WOA, GOA and SSA optimization-based statistical results
are also presented to confirm the outstanding performance of the modified SSA based
design. The SSA and its modification proposed here provide a novel and effective idea
for applying them in electromagnetics community and antenna design.

13
1066 Q. Liang et al.

Fig. 14  Result curves for different algorithms a 12-element LAA optimized by spacing-only b 12-element
LAA optimized by amplitude-only c 12-element LAA optimized by spacing and amplitude d 8-element
CAA optimized by arc distance and amplitude e 12-element CAA optimized by arc distance and amplitude
f 16-element CAA optimized by arc distance and amplitude

Author contributions QL Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis and investigation, Writing—

original draft preparation, Writing—review and editing. HW Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—
review and editing. BC Methodology, Supervision, Resources.

Funding No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

Data availability All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

Code availability Not applicable.

Declarations
Conflicts of interest The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under
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Qiankun Liang was born in Henan, China, in 1996. He received the

B.Sc. degree in communication engineering from Xiamen University,
Xiamen, China, in 2019. He is currently pursuing the M.Sc. degree in
electronics and communication engineering with the college of elec-
tronic engineering, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan, China.
His research interests include shortwave communications and array
antenna.

Huaning Wu was born in Hubei, China, in 1987. He received the

B.Sc. degree in communication engineering from Nanhua University,
Hengyang, China, in 2008, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in com-
munication engineering from the Naval University of Engineering,
Wuhan, China, in 2010 and 2014, respectively. He is currently a Lec-
turer of electrical engineering with the Naval University of engineer-
ing. His main research interests include shortwave communications
and array antenna.

13
Design of Linear and Circular Antenna Arrays for Side Lobe… 1069

Bin Chen was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1975. He received the B.Sc.,
M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in communication engineering from the
Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan, China, in 1996, 2010, and
2017, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor and a Mas-
ter’s Tutor with the College of Electrical Engineering, Naval Univer-
sity of Engineering. His main research interests include shortwave
communications and artificial intelligence.

13