Characterization of multi-port Eleven antenna for use in MIMO system

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the MIMO performance of the L-band multi-port Eleven antenna. Both a single- and dual-polarized lab model are investigated, both having 4 ports per polarization. The 4 ports per polarization are normally combined in a 180 deg hybrid to produce sum and difference patterns, but we investigate them here as individual ports in an antenna for a MIMO system. The embedded element efficiency, diversity gain and maximum available capacity of both models have been measured in a Bluetest reverberation chamber. The measured results show that the Eleven antenna is a flexible antenna that can be used with around 11 dB gain and arbitrary single or dual polarization in a Line-Of-Sight system and with 4 or 8 independent ports in a MIMO system, and it can easily be switched between these two modes by appropriate combination of the antenna ports.