Measurements and Physics-Based Analysis of Co-Located Antenna Pattern Diversity System

This paper investigates the advantages offered by radiation pattern diversity using a new physics-based analysis that takes into account the complex radiation patterns of the transmit(Tx) and receive(Rx) diversity antennas in conjunction with an accurate deterministic, coherent, and polarization preserving propagation model for a complex indoor scenario. Unlike techniques that utilize spatial diversity, radiation pattern diversity offers a unique opportunity to achieve compact diversity antenna systems especially with the advent of enabling antenna miniaturization techniques. In this work, a co-located antenna radiation pattern diversity system is proposed and its performance is analyzed using an accurate physics-based diversity analysis technique. The proposed analysis technique utilizes an efficient deterministic propagation model modified by incorporating the complex gain of the Tx and the complex effective heights of the Rx antennas into the rays launched and received by the antennas in a coherent manner. The proposed system is realized and tested in complex indoor scenarios based on which complex correlation coefficients between various channels and the effective diversity gain are computed which are then utilized as a figure of merit for improved channel reliability. For the scenarios considered, it is shown that the apparent diversity gain is at least 9.4 dB based on measured results.