The influence of antenna directivity on physical layer simulations of 802.11n devices

Integration of multiple antennas into 802.11n devices gives raise to many interesting questions. One of the most frequent questions is the desired antenna radiation properties of each antenna elements. Directive antennas are often suggested in an effort to increase the power link budget by increasing antenna gain in the azimuth plane. However, the impact of preferred directions on the received multi-path signal is seldom considered. In this presentation, we improve upon already existing channel models to include antenna directivity in the physical layer (PHY) simulation. The link budgets for 2×2 and 2×(3 choose 2) MIMO systems are presented including omni and directive antenna patterns in a variety of array configurations.