This paper presents a computational and experimental study of the diversity
performance of two dual-antenna handsets operating indoor in the 902-928 M
Hz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band. Of particular interest i
s the effect of the operator tissue on the diversity operation. Key indicat
ors of diversity gain such as branch mean effective gain (MEG) and envelope
correlation coefficient are obtained from finite-difference time-domain (F
DTD) method simulations as well as from experimental measurements in three
different indoor environments, Diversity gain for the handsets is also meas
ured directly. Reasonable agreement is observed between the experimental an
d simulated results, with both approaches indicating that while the tissue
lowers the MEG of individual branches by 3-5 dB, it has little influence on
the handset overall diversity performance.