Diversity mechanisms and MIMO throughput performance of a compact six-port dielectric resonator antenna array

This paper demonstrates multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) throughput performance of a six-port dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) array for Wireless-LAN applications in a measured indoor office environment when a six-port dual-polarized patch array is used at the transmitter. The throughput was obtained using an IEEE802.11n/Draft 5.00 simulator for measured channels with different antenna and propagation setups. The throughput performance of the patch-DRA array set-up is found to be similar to that of a set-up with six-port monopole arrays at the receive and transmit ends in the non-line-of sight (NLOS) environment. The compact design of the DRA array causes lower port efficiencies relative to those of the monopole array, notwithstanding the compact DRA array is shown in this paper to effectively utilize angle, polarization and spatial diversity mechanisms to achieve comparable throughput performance.