Antenna selection and deployment strategies for indoor wireless communication systems

Abstract

Effective antenna selection and deployment strategies are important for reducing cochannel interference in indoor wireless systems. Low-cost solutions are essential, and strategies that utilise simple antennas (such as directional patches) are advantageous from this perspective. However, performance is always an issue and the improvements achievable through clever antenna deployment need to be quantified. In this thesis, an experimental investigation of indoor propagation comparing the performance of directional antennas and multiple-element arrays (MEAs) with omni-directional antennas is reported. Estimation of the performance of a direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system operating in a variety of deployment scenarios allows the identification of a range of performance-limiting factors and the optimal deployment strategies.It is shown that the orientation of single-element directional antennas can significantly impact on system performance compared to omni-directional antennas in traditional systems. The deployment of MEAs with an active diversity combining scheme can further improve system performance by more than one order of magnitude. From the perspective of system planning, the choice of antenna selection and deployment options depends on the current and future demand for system performance and the financial resources available. An evolutionary path has been proposed to provide a smooth transition from conventional (low-cost) to high-performance (high-cost) antenna systems as demand dictates.Other performance-limiting factors in indoor wireless systems include the physical environment and external interference. It is also shown that electromagnetically-opaque obstacles in the environment can amplify the effectiveness of the antenna deployment by acting as physical zone boundaries that restrict interference. External interference has been shown to cause a significant degradation to the performance of an indoor system when the carrier-to-external-interference ratio (CEIR) is below 30 dB. This performance degradation can be minimised by appropriate antenna deployment, although the optimum antenna orientations depends on the strength of the external interference.I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who made it possible for me to complete this thesis. My foremost thank goes to my supervisors, Dr. Michael Neve and Dr. Kevin Sowerby. Michael offered me practical guidance and tremendous support throughout my PhD and set a high standard for my work. Kevin provided me with inspiring insights and ideas that contributed to the depth of my research.Without the endless jokes and comfort from the members of the Radio Systems Group, the sometimes tedious work and intense pressure both academically and emotionally would not be bearable. Thanks to David Yuen for his Lord of the Rings analogy, envisioning the PhD programme as a journey of life experience instead of focusing on the end result. Special thanks to Mark Twiname for his technical support and assistance in the construction of the me...

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