Effects on correlation between two mobile radio base-station antennas

Abstract

The correlation between signals received by two mobile radio base-station antennas is investigated to determine spacing requirements for space diversity. Measurements of the fading of UHF signals received by two base-station horn antennas oriented at different angles with respect to the incoming mobile radio signal were made for different antenna spacings. The experimental results are compared with an analytical expression derived in this paper; they agree fairly well. A further experiment was made after removing the possible local scatterers surrounding the base station. Comparing these two experimental results, we find that the following are true. 1) Propagation in the direction of a line connecting the two base-station antennas is the critical case and requires a large separation of 70 wavelengths. As soon as the incoming wave is 10° away from the in-line axis, the spacing requirement drops to 30 wavelengths. 2) Local scatterers at the base station tend to decrease the correlation between signals received at the two antennas. We conclude that an upper limit to the spacing of antennas used for diversity can be obtained and that it is within the achievable range.