A 3-D extrapolation model for base station antennas' radiation patterns

This paper presents a new and simple method for the estimation of 3-D radiation patterns, based on the horizontal and vertical ones, that leads to lower errors compared to some common methods. In order to evaluate the reliability of this method, it has been tested for various theoretical cases, by considering dipoles, individually or in arrays. For the case of the half-wavelength dipole, a maximum error of 12.0 dB (for directions of very low radiation) and an average one of 1.6 dB were obtained; for an uniform array of two dipoles radiating in a half plane (which leads to a similar GSM panel antennas' radiation pattern) the average error was 1.8 dB (in the whole sphere). Measurements were also conducted in a real GSM network, and different approximations for the base station radiation pattern were compared. The model presented here leads to the lower error, its average absolute value being 4.0 dB.