Smart broadband body-wearable antennas for mitigation of signal fading in mobile environment

The conventional wisdom of an ideal omnidirectional antenna is an old academic idea, which is not practical nor useful in most mobile environments, as is well known to practicing engineers in wireless telecommunications. In the past five years, a wide variety of data compression, modulation and coding schemes have led to larger bit errors in wireless signals, while the communications environments are increasingly polluted with higher noises and interferences. Today, with the rapid advent of high-performance lowcost RF devices and software, as driven by the global commercial wireless markets, the production and deployment of smart wearable antennas are both practical and necessary. This paper discusses key issues on smart broadband body-wearable antennas, in particular signal fading, which can be effectively mitigated by as much as 35 dB in a practical low-cost design.