Performance evaluation of an IEEE 802.11n Access Point antenna system

Multiple external antennas are typically used on Access Points (APs) to combat and, indeed, exploit multipath via the spatial diversity they provide. However, external antennas are not aesthetically pleasing and are prone to reliability failures. This paper presents a study of a MIMO internal antenna system and compares its performance to that of a traditional external dipole array. The MIMO performance of the two antenna systems considered is assessed using tools that combine the active E-field radiation patterns with appropriate channel models. The studies properly treat the effect of the product box on the antenna system via an electromagnetics exact formulation. It is shown that the proposed internal antenna system performs comparably to the external dipoles.