Space versus angle diversity-results of system analysis using propagation data

Propagation experiments performed on a test link using diversity configurations are described. The results for the angle-diversity antenna show that the dispersive nature of the fading is mainly caused by ground reflections or ray bending at ground-based layers. Outage calculations were performed for 16-QAM and 256-QAM digital radio systems with different parameters, using the observed propagation channel characteristics. The results show that propagation impairments can be reduced strongly by angle-diversity reception as compared with single reception or horizontal space diversity. Vertical space diversity with a large antenna separation, however, outperformed angle diversity, at least for the beam orientations chosen in this experiment