Issues and challenges of LTE antenna designs for USB-dongle device

Achieving the high data rates proposed by the fourth generation (4G) technology using a small-size antenna on a compact device remains a major technical challenge. This paper focuses on surveying the ongoing researches on antenna design for USB dongle supporting Long Term Evolution (LTE). This article analyses the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives of small monopole antenna design such as meandered line antenna, inverted-L antenna, inverted-F antenna, planar inverted-F antenna, and multiband antenna composed of different types of radiators for providing multifunctional operations for LTE-USB antennas. Based on isolation techniques, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques implemented has been classified and analysed. The finding is that the existing work focused on the wire or 3D antennas and still there are voids for researchers to improve the low cost, and simple profile printed antenna designs. LTE MIMO throughput measurement for characterization of antenna terminal performance study is absent from all reviewed papers contained in this study.