Propagation Characteristics of Polarized Radio Waves in Cellular Communications

Narrowband and wideband measurements of the radio channel using different combinations of transmit and receive polarization have been performed. The measurements cover a range of scenarios including urban, suburban and open terrain, as well as both outdoor and indoor terminals. The vertical-to-vertical (V-V) and horizontal-to-horizontal (H-H) polarization combinations are found to provide equal received power on average, while the cross-polarized combinations (V-H) and (H-V) typically provide 5-15 dB weaker received power due to the limited amount of cross-polarization scattering in the radio channel. Fast fading variations are further found to be uncorrelated between different combinations of transmit and receive polarization.