Design Method for Capacity Enhancement of Pattern-Reconfigurable MIMO Vehicular Antennas

This paper presents a novel design and evaluation procedure for capacity enhancing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems for mobile communication. Based on channel simulations, optimized patterns are defined prior to antenna design. A multiple antenna system is proposed, which switches between patterns covering desired directions. This antenna system is then evaluated in an urban environment at 2.49 GHz based on 2x2 MIMO channel simulation and measurement results. An improvement of the channel capacity exceeding 1 bps/Hz compared to an omnidirectional antenna system is confirmed by both, simulation and measurement.