On the multichannel characteristics of a 1.8 GHz smart antenna system using a circular array in realistic non-stationary wireless scenarios

In mobile communications, smart antenna systems that utilize an antenna array and perform advanced signal processing techniques can achieve greater channel capacity and improve link quality by selective reception/transmission at the base station. However, development of adaptive signal processing algorithms for smart antenna system applications require the accurate knowledge about the multichannel propagation characteristics. A few experimental results on the spatial signature variation of a uniform linear array (ULA) at 900 MHz have been reported. This paper presents the experimental results on the channel propagation characteristic variations of a 1.8 GHz smart antenna system using a uniform circular array (UCA) in moving mobile scenarios. The results indicate the stability of direction-of-arrival (DOAs) of multipath components in all scenarios, and the instability of the spatial signatures in scenarios with strong multipaths