Pattern diversity through azimuth blocking

Diversity techniques based on combining uncorrelated or partially correlated signals have proven to be effective for combating signal fading that typifies indoor wireless communication channels. Antenna diversity resulting from combining multiple antennas with different radiation characteristics is one of several diversity techniques, and it can be further subdivided into spatial, polarization, and pattern diversities. Spatial diversity through an array of spatially distributed antennas has been in widespread use in many wireless applications (ex. cellular network base-station) for several years. However, the size of a multi-element antenna array is not compatible with the small size of a handheld terminal. This paper proposes an alternative and novel diversity technique based on azimuth blocking for handheld terminal applications.