WLC26-4: Fixed Relaying with Advanced Antennas for CDMA Cellular Networks

Studies performed so far on multihop based cellular networks assume the use of omnidirectional antennas at relay stations. In this paper, we investigate the employment of advanced antenna configurations at relay stations including directional antennas and adaptive antenna arrays. We analyze several directional antenna orientation strategies and the gains achieved relative to other cellular network designs. Results show that directional antenna designs perform better than omnidirectional antenna designs for practical network loads with appropriate antenna orientation strategies. Furthermore, adaptive antenna arrays offer best results even with only two antenna elements.