Mobile Relay Station with Radiation Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna

In this paper, a new radiation pattern reconfigurable antenna is designed for mobile relay station (MRS) on vehicles to increase the link reliability and system flexibility in mobility. With only a single radio frequency (RF) chain, various beam patterns can be formed and selected electronically in a simple way. The design and corresponding beam switching mechanism are demonstrated through an experimental prototype with improved SINR performance, particularly at the cell boundary. Furthermore, its advantage in handover is confirmed through numerical simulations. The handover success rate increases significantly in high speed mobility.