Beam steering circular monopole arrays for wireless applications

We have present computations and experimental results on simple reactively steered monopole arrays intended for mobile communications applications. Both are in good agreement, and demonstrate appreciable directivities which might be useful in order to mitigate multipath propagation and enhance the useful range. We show experimental results intended to check the model validity on an 6 cm diameter array, constructed on a large metallic ground plane for 5 GHz operation. Such antennas are an interesting alternative to conformal arrays for millimeter-wave frequencies where the latter seem impractical. Difficulties which could arise in their practical 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.