Wideband characterization of wireless channels for smart antenna applications

Coherence bandwidth is an important propagation parameter that has direct impact on the design and performance of a wireless communications link contemplating performance enhancement features like smart antenna applications. This paper presents wideband characterization for indoor and outdoor-to-indoor channels and wideband vector channel measurements for an indoor environment. The results show that the coherent bandwidth of about 10 MHz associated with indoor channel can accommodate diversity operations for wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) system. In addition, a study of the envelope cross-correlation points to the feasibility of a smart antenna system. For outdoor-to-indoor channel, the coherence bandwidth indicated that some additional temporal processing would be necessary for a W-CDMA system. Existing narrowband systems, however, would suffice to use simple diversity techniques in such a channel.