Smart antenna solutions for mobile radio systems

This paper covers a number of issues relating to the design of `smart´ receiving antennas for the base stations of mobile cellular radio communication systems. A main focus for discussion will centre around the feasibility for providing an optimum antenna beamformer design and how this aim depends quite critically on the multipath environment in which it operates. We present some preliminary ideas on how the smart antenna system may need to evolve in the future to accommodate the complexities of the RF propagation channel