Antenna configuration effect on EGC diversity performance in WLAN systems

The Equal Gain Combining (EGC) diversity technique is generally known to have a performance close to an optimal Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) technique while being less complex for realization. Hence, the implementation of EGC in practice is of interest. As the dimension constraint on WLAN terminal, the problem of how to configure multiple antennas on such a limited area arises. In this paper, the study of correlation between each antenna signal under restricted area is presented to evaluate the performance of EGC diversity technique. The measurements of WLAN signals are also undertaken in order to justify the simulation results. The investigations reveal that the antenna configurations provide the different performance depending on the type of fading channels.