Effect of channel conditions and antenna parameters on the performance analysis of compact antenna arrays

An extensive investigation into the effects of many different channel conditions and antenna parameters on user terminal antenna arrays is presented. The impact of angular parameters associated with the mean azimuth-of-arrival (MAOA), azimuth spread (AS), mean elevation-of-arrival (MEOA) and elevation spread (ES) of the propagation channel is analysed. The importance and influence of these parameters on the system performance are examined. The antenna parameters under study include types of antenna arrays and mutual coupling. These investigations provide important insights into the feasibility of introducing compact antenna arrays on the user terminal. Results show that the system performance is dependent on AS and ES while the impact of MAOA and MEOA is array dependent. Mutual coupling causes fading decorrelation which in principle leads to performance gain, but this is compensated by the effect of signal cancellation that reduces the overall received power.