Smart antenna techniques for wireless mobile multimedia services

The use of suitable antenna techniques ranging from the less intelligent ones (diversity) to the most complex ones (adaptive array techniques) can significantly contribute in optimising the air interface of wireless local area networks (WLANs) able to support high bit rate services such as multimedia applications. In this paper we review some of the most important antenna techniques and the improvements they can provide against channel limitations, and including the ones which are more likely to be adopted in future broadband WLANs. Active research fronts are addressed. The wireless part of the network is assumed to be of microcellular or/and picocellular configurations with indoor wireless networking being a major part of the infrastructure. The general infrastructure of such a network including the fixed network is shown.