Beam steering circular monopole arrays for wireless applications

The computations and experimental results on simple reactively steered monopole arrays for mobile communication applications are presented. Both demonstrate directivities that are useful in order to mitigate multipath propagation and enhance the useful range. Such antennas are interesting alternatives to conformal arrays for millimeter-wave frequencies. Difficulties that arise in the implementation are finite ground-plane effects, poor loss/isolation of the switches needed for steering and complexity of the protocol between emitter and receiver to establish and maintain the communication.