Systems analysis of a pattern reconfigurable antenna for capacity improvement of cell edge users in cellular networks

An evaluation of a beam reconfigurable base station transceiver for cellular applications is presented from both a systems and antenna design perspective. The proposed technique uses an azimuth beam switching method which incorporates PIN diodes to provide a fast switching reflecting ground plane for a three sector antenna. Numerical systems analysis have been carried out on a hexagonal homogeneous cellular network to evaluate how the reconfigurable antenna can be used to trade-off the mean and cell edge capacity by reconfiguring the azimuth beamwidth. The systems analysis show that a mean cell edge improvement from 15Mbit/s to 18Mbit/s is achievable and this improvement is consistent for cell sizes ranging from 500m to 1500m. The proposed reconfigurable antenna has been designed, manufactured and characterised and the measured results are shown to be similar to simulations.