Directivity and Interference Tradeoffs with Cylindrical Antenna Arrays

Cylindrical antenna arrays are characterized by high directivities, narrow beams, and low sidelobe levels. They were successfully used to increase the user capacity in the downlink of WCDMA cellular systems. Their high directivities lead to an increase of interference in the adjacent cells, whereas their narrow beams and low sidelobes help efficiently in interference mitigation. A tradeoff between these two contrasting trends is investigated. Cylindrical antenna arrays are shown to outperform other array types with similar properties, leading to an increase in capacity and coverage and simultaneously providing good interference rejection properties.