Lc. Godara, APPLICATIONS OF ANTENNA-ARRAYS TO MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS .1. PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT, FEASIBILITY, AND SYSTEM CONSIDERATIONS, Proceedings of the IEEE, 85(7), 1997, pp. 1031-1060
The demand for wireless mobile communications services is growing at a
n explosive rate, with the anticipation that communication to a mobile
device anywhere on the globe at all times will be available in the ne
ar future. An array of antennas mounted on vehicles, ships, aircraft,
satellites, and base stations is expected to play an important role in
fulfilling the increased demand of channel requirement for these serv
ices, as well as for the realization of the dream that a portable comm
unications device the size of a wristwatch be available at an affordab
le cost for such services. This paper is the first of a two-part study
. It provides a comprehensive treatment, at a level appropriate to non
specialists, of the use of an antenna array to enhance the efficiency
of mobile communications systems. It presents an overview of mobile co
mmunications as well as details of how an array may be used in various
mobile communications systems, including land-mobile, indoor-radio, a
nd satellite-based systems, It discusses advantages of an array of ant
ennas in a mobile communications system highlights improvements that a
re possible by using multiple antennas compared to a single antenna in
a-system, and provides details on the feasibility of antenna arrays f
or mobile communications applications.