Antenna diversity
Encyclopedia
Antenna diversity, also known as space diversity, is any one of several wireless diversity scheme
s that uses two or more antennas to improve the quality and reliability of a wireless link. Often, especially in urban and indoor environments, there is no clear line-of-sight
(LOS) between transmitter and receiver. Instead the signal is reflected along multiple paths before finally being received. Each of these bounces can introduce phase shifts, time delays, attenuations, and distortions that can destructively interfere with one another at the aperture of the receiving antenna.
Antenna diversity is especially effective at mitigating these multipath situations. This is because multiple antennas offer a receiver several observations of the same signal. Each antenna will experience a different interference environment. Thus, if one antenna is experiencing a deep fade
, it is likely that another has a sufficient signal. Collectively such a system can provide a robust link. While this is primarily seen in receiving systems (diversity reception), the analog has also proven valuable for transmitting systems (transmit diversity
) as well.
Inherently an antenna diversity scheme requires additional hardware and integration versus a single antenna system but due to the commonality of the signal paths a fair amount of circuitry can be shared. Also with the multiple signals there is a greater processing demand placed on the receiver, which can lead to tighter design requirements. Typically, however, signal reliability is paramount and using multiple antennas is an effective way to decrease the number of drop-outs and lost connections.
- Switching – In a switching receiver, the signal from only one antenna is fed to the receiver for as long as the quality of that signal remains above some prescribed threshold. If and when the signal degrades, another antenna is switched in. Switching is the easiest and least power consuming of the antenna diversity processing techniques but periods of fading and desynchronization may occur while the quality of one antenna degrades and another antenna link is established.
- Selecting – As with switching, selection processing presents only one antenna’s signal to the receiver at any given time. The antenna chosen, however, is based on the best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) among the received signals. This requires that a pre-measurement take place and that all antennas have established connections (at least during the SNR measurement) leading to a higher power requirement. The actual selection process can take place in between received packets of information. This ensures that a single antenna connection is maintained as much as possible. Switching can then take place on a packet-by-packet basis if necessary.
- Combining – In combining, all antennas maintain established connections at all times. The signals are then combined and presented to the receiver. Depending on the sophistication of the system, the signals can be added directly (equal gain combining) or weighted and added coherently (maximal-ratio combining
). Such a system provides the greatest resistance to fading but since all the receive paths must remain energized, it also consumes the most power.
- Dynamic Control – Dynamically controlled receivers are capable of choosing from the above processing schemes for whenever the situation arises. While much more complex, they optimize the power vs. performance trade-off. Transitions between modes and/or antenna connections are signaled by a change in the perceived quality of the link. In situations of low fading, the receiver can employ no diversity and use the signal presented by a single antenna. As conditions degrade, the receiver can then assume the more highly reliable but power-hungry modes described above.
s, and in similar electronic
devices such as wireless guitar
systems. A wireless microphone
with a non-diversity receiver (a receiver having only one antenna) is prone to random drop-outs, fades, noise, or other interference
, especially if the transmitter
(the wireless microphone) is in motion. A wireless microphone or sound system
using diversity reception will switch to the other antenna within microseconds if one antenna experiences noise, providing an improved quality signal with fewer drop-outs and noise. Ideally, no drop-outs or noise will occur in the received signal.
Another common usage is in Wi-Fi
networking gear and cordless telephones to compensate for multipath interference
. The base station will switch reception to one of two antennas
depending on which is currently receiving a stronger signal. For best results, the antennas are usually placed one wavelength apart. For microwave
bands, where the wavelengths are under 100 cm, this can often be done with two antennas attached to the same hardware. For lower frequencies and longer wavelengths, the antennas must be several meters apart, making it much less reasonable.
Mobile phone
towers also often take advantage of diversity - each face (sector) of a tower will often have two antennas; one is transmitting and receiving, while the other is a receive only antenna. Two receivers are used to perform diversity reception.
The use of multiple antennas at both transmit and receive results in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. The use of diversity techniques at both ends of the link is termed space–time coding
.
system in wireless channels. Wireless channels severely suffer from fading phenomena, which causes unreliability in data decoding. Fundamentally, diversity coding sends multiple copies through multiple transmit antennas, so as to improve the reliability of the data reception. If one of them fails to receive, the others are used for data decoding.
Diversity scheme
In telecommunications, a diversity scheme refers to a method for improving the reliability of a message signal by using two or more communication channels with different characteristics. Diversity plays an important role in combatting fading and co-channel interference and avoiding error bursts...
s that uses two or more antennas to improve the quality and reliability of a wireless link. Often, especially in urban and indoor environments, there is no clear line-of-sight
Line-of-sight propagation
Line-of-sight propagation refers to electro-magnetic radiation or acoustic wave propagation. Electromagnetic transmission includes light emissions traveling in a straight line...
(LOS) between transmitter and receiver. Instead the signal is reflected along multiple paths before finally being received. Each of these bounces can introduce phase shifts, time delays, attenuations, and distortions that can destructively interfere with one another at the aperture of the receiving antenna.
Antenna diversity is especially effective at mitigating these multipath situations. This is because multiple antennas offer a receiver several observations of the same signal. Each antenna will experience a different interference environment. Thus, if one antenna is experiencing a deep fade
Fading
In wireless communications, fading is deviation of the attenuation that a carrier-modulated telecommunication signal experiences over certain propagation media. The fading may vary with time, geographical position and/or radio frequency, and is often modelled as a random process. A fading channel...
, it is likely that another has a sufficient signal. Collectively such a system can provide a robust link. While this is primarily seen in receiving systems (diversity reception), the analog has also proven valuable for transmitting systems (transmit diversity
Transmit diversity
Transmit diversity is radio communication using signals that originate from two or more independent sources that have been modulated with identical information-bearing signals and that may vary in their transmission characteristics at any given instant....
) as well.
Inherently an antenna diversity scheme requires additional hardware and integration versus a single antenna system but due to the commonality of the signal paths a fair amount of circuitry can be shared. Also with the multiple signals there is a greater processing demand placed on the receiver, which can lead to tighter design requirements. Typically, however, signal reliability is paramount and using multiple antennas is an effective way to decrease the number of drop-outs and lost connections.
Antenna Techniques
Antenna diversity can be realized in several ways. Depending on the environment and the expected interference, designers can employ one or more of these methods to improve signal quality. In fact multiple methods are frequently used to further increase reliability.- Spatial diversity employs multiple antennas, usually with the same characteristics, that are physically separated from one another. Depending upon the expected incidence of the incoming signal, sometimes a space on the order of a wavelength is sufficient. Other times much larger distances are needed. CellularizationCellular networkA cellular network is a radio network distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area...
or sectorization, for example, is a spatial diversity scheme that can have antennas or base stationBase stationThe term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications.- Land surveying :In the context of external land surveying, a base station is a GPS receiver at an accurately-known fixed location which is used to derive correction information for nearby portable GPS...
s miles apart. This is especially beneficial for the mobile communication industry since it allows multiple users to share a limited communication spectrum and avoid co-channel interference.
- Pattern diversity consists of two or more co-located antennas with different radiation patternRadiation patternIn the field of antenna design the term radiation pattern most commonly refers to the directional dependence of the strength of the radio waves from the antenna or other source ....
s. This type of diversity makes use of directive antennas that are usually physically separated by some (often short) distance. Collectively they are capable of discriminating a large portion of angle space and can provide a higher gain versus a single omnidirectional radiator.
- Polarization diversity combines pairs of antennas with orthogonal polarizations (i.e. horizontal/vertical, ± slant 45°, Left-hand/Right-hand CP etc.). Reflected signals can undergo polarization changes depending on the medium through which they are travelling. A polarisation difference of 90° will result in an attenuation factor of up to 34dB in signal strength. By pairing two complementary polarizations, this scheme can immunize a system from polarization mismatches that would otherwise cause signal fade. Additionally, such diversity has proven valuable at radio and mobile communication base stations since it is less susceptible to the near random orientations of transmitting antennas.
- Transmit/Receive diversity uses two separate, collocated antennas for transmit and receive functions. Such a configuration eliminates the need for a duplexer and can protect sensitive receiver components from the high power used in transmit.
- Adaptive arrays can be a single antenna with active elements or an array of similar antennas with ability to change their combined radiation pattern as different conditions persist. Active electronically scanned arrays (AESAs) manipulate phase shifters and attenuators at the face of each radiating site to provide a near instantaneous scan ability as well as pattern and polarization control. This is especially beneficial for radar applications since it affords a signal antenna the ability to switch among several different modes such as searching, tracking, mapping and jamming countermeasures.
Processing Techniques
All of the above techniques require some sort of post processing to recover the desired message. Among these techniques are:- Switching – In a switching receiver, the signal from only one antenna is fed to the receiver for as long as the quality of that signal remains above some prescribed threshold. If and when the signal degrades, another antenna is switched in. Switching is the easiest and least power consuming of the antenna diversity processing techniques but periods of fading and desynchronization may occur while the quality of one antenna degrades and another antenna link is established.
- Selecting – As with switching, selection processing presents only one antenna’s signal to the receiver at any given time. The antenna chosen, however, is based on the best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) among the received signals. This requires that a pre-measurement take place and that all antennas have established connections (at least during the SNR measurement) leading to a higher power requirement. The actual selection process can take place in between received packets of information. This ensures that a single antenna connection is maintained as much as possible. Switching can then take place on a packet-by-packet basis if necessary.
- Combining – In combining, all antennas maintain established connections at all times. The signals are then combined and presented to the receiver. Depending on the sophistication of the system, the signals can be added directly (equal gain combining) or weighted and added coherently (maximal-ratio combining
Maximal-ratio combining
In telecommunications, maximal-ratio combining is a method of diversity combining in which: the signals from each channel are added together, the gain of each channel is made proportional to the rms signal level and inversely proportional to the mean square noise level in that channel. different...
). Such a system provides the greatest resistance to fading but since all the receive paths must remain energized, it also consumes the most power.
- Dynamic Control – Dynamically controlled receivers are capable of choosing from the above processing schemes for whenever the situation arises. While much more complex, they optimize the power vs. performance trade-off. Transitions between modes and/or antenna connections are signaled by a change in the perceived quality of the link. In situations of low fading, the receiver can employ no diversity and use the signal presented by a single antenna. As conditions degrade, the receiver can then assume the more highly reliable but power-hungry modes described above.
Applications
A well-known practical application of diversity reception is in wireless microphoneWireless microphone
A wireless microphone, as the name implies, is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated...
s, and in similar electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
devices such as wireless guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
systems. A wireless microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
with a non-diversity receiver (a receiver having only one antenna) is prone to random drop-outs, fades, noise, or other interference
Interference (communication)
In communications and electronics, especially in telecommunications, interference is anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a signal as it travels along a channel between a source and a receiver. The term typically refers to the addition of unwanted signals to a useful signal...
, especially if the transmitter
Transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
(the wireless microphone) is in motion. A wireless microphone or sound system
Sound reinforcement system
A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also distribute those sounds to a larger or more distant audience...
using diversity reception will switch to the other antenna within microseconds if one antenna experiences noise, providing an improved quality signal with fewer drop-outs and noise. Ideally, no drop-outs or noise will occur in the received signal.
Another common usage is in Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
networking gear and cordless telephones to compensate for multipath interference
Multipath interference
Multipath interference is a phenomenon in the physics of waves whereby a wave from a source travels to a detector via two or more paths and, under the right condition, the two components of the wave interfere...
. The base station will switch reception to one of two antennas
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
depending on which is currently receiving a stronger signal. For best results, the antennas are usually placed one wavelength apart. For microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
bands, where the wavelengths are under 100 cm, this can often be done with two antennas attached to the same hardware. For lower frequencies and longer wavelengths, the antennas must be several meters apart, making it much less reasonable.
Mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
towers also often take advantage of diversity - each face (sector) of a tower will often have two antennas; one is transmitting and receiving, while the other is a receive only antenna. Two receivers are used to perform diversity reception.
The use of multiple antennas at both transmit and receive results in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. The use of diversity techniques at both ends of the link is termed space–time coding
Space–time code
A space–time code is a method employed to improve the reliability of data transmission in wireless communication systems using multiple transmit antennas...
.
Antenna diversity for MIMO
Diversity Coding is the spatial coding techniques for a MIMOMIMO
In radio, multiple-input and multiple-output, or MIMO , is the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver to improve communication performance. It is one of several forms of smart antenna technology...
system in wireless channels. Wireless channels severely suffer from fading phenomena, which causes unreliability in data decoding. Fundamentally, diversity coding sends multiple copies through multiple transmit antennas, so as to improve the reliability of the data reception. If one of them fails to receive, the others are used for data decoding.
See also
- Diversity schemeDiversity schemeIn telecommunications, a diversity scheme refers to a method for improving the reliability of a message signal by using two or more communication channels with different characteristics. Diversity plays an important role in combatting fading and co-channel interference and avoiding error bursts...
s - Space–time codeSpace–time codeA space–time code is a method employed to improve the reliability of data transmission in wireless communication systems using multiple transmit antennas...
- Rake receiverRake receiverA rake receiver is a radio receiver designed to counter the effects of multipath fading. It does this by using several "sub-receivers" called fingers, that is, several correlators each assigned to a different multipath component...
- Multiple-input multiple-output communications (MIMO)
- Macro diversity
- Diversity combiningDiversity combiningDiversity combining is the technique applied to combine the multiple received signals of a diversity reception device into a single improved signal.- Various techniques :Various diversity combining techniques can be distinguished:...
- Transmit diversityTransmit diversityTransmit diversity is radio communication using signals that originate from two or more independent sources that have been modulated with identical information-bearing signals and that may vary in their transmission characteristics at any given instant....
- Diversity gainDiversity gainIn wireless communications, diversity gain is the increase in signal-to-interference ratio due to some diversity scheme, or how much the transmission power can be reduced when a diversity scheme is introduced, without a performance loss. Diversity gain is usually expressed in decibel, and sometimes...
- Cooperative diversityCooperative diversityCooperative diversity is a cooperative multiple antenna technique for improving or maximising total network channel capacities for any given set of bandwidths which exploits user diversity by decoding the combined signal of the relayed signal and the direct signal in wireless multihop networks...