Performance evaluation of space and frequency diversity for 60 GHz wireless LANs using a ray model

In this paper, the performance of space and frequency diversity techniques at 60 GHz for indoor wireless LANs are investigated. The selected environments are an ideal, empty room and a real room with doors, windows and columns. The computation of received fading envelopes is performed by means of a 3D ray-tracing technique. The electromagnetic field components are adequately processed to obtain the single branch and combined signal envelope. Then diversity gain is extracted. The results show a dependence of space diversity performance on terminal location and on the direction of second-branch antenna displacement. Very good overall diversity gain can be obtained even adopting small space or frequency separation with both techniques.