Reconfigurable antenna system with a movable ground plane for cognitive radio

A new cognitive radio antenna system is presented and discussed in this study. The antenna system is composed of a wideband antenna that is used for channel sensing and a communicating antenna that is used for dynamic transmission over various frequencies. The communicating antenna is a software controlled reconfigurable antenna that can tune its frequency response by changing the height and angular position of its ground plane. This antenna is composed of a rectangular patch and three ground planes. Two ground planes are fixed while the third one moves and tilts based on the user´s demand. The antenna´s moving ground plane is controlled by an Arduino board and two linear actuators. The wideband sensing antenna is composed of a printed monopole patch that searches the spectrum for idle frequencies. A prototype of the complete antenna system is fabricated and tested. Both experimental and simulated results show good agreement.