Reconfigurable antennas in highly multipath environments

Highly reflective environments, such as ships, aircraft, and industrial warehouses, can be challenging for wireless communications. This effort investigates the use of transmitter-side reconfigurable antennas to mitigate the effect of multipath interference in such environments. Software-defined radios were used to transmit and receive IEEE 802.11g OFDM packets in “tuned” reverberation chambers at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA. The reconfigurable antenna improved signal integrity by 4.9 dB over a conventional, omnidirectional antenna for SISO, and by a smaller margin for MRC. The reconfigurable antenna achieved greater capacity than the omnidirectional antenna with 16% improvement. It is concluded that reconfigurable antennas are well suited for use with access points and other stationary network infrastructure to facilitate the design and mobility of receivers in highly reflective environments.