Assessment of diversity performance from measured data at the millimetre waveband

The correlation between signals, received by two antennas in a base-station, is investigated to demonstrate the applicability of space diversity to a mobile broadband transmission, at 60 GHz. Measurements performed in a canyon-like street, using several antenna configurations, have been processed to determine the dependence of correlation on the distance. An analysis of the correlation coefficient when the mobile station is stopped, when the whole signal is used, on a metre by metre basis and on a per frame basis has been carried out, showing that the correlation coefficient does depend on the way it is calculated. Pre-detection combining gain has been evaluated using the pure selection, equal gain and maximal ratio combining techniques for both unbalanced and balanced channels. As expected, the latter technique has been shown to provide the best improvement to the reliability of the link