Performance analysis of spatial diversity schemes on an 802.11a PHY platform

Simulations performed on an 802.11a a PHY platform have proven the necessity of introducing some spatial diversity schemes on the transmission chain. Basic antenna diversity designs - ThC, SDC, MRC and EGC -have been tested. They clearly improve bit rate and packet error rate performance, and EGC provides higher antenna diversity gain then SDC. MRC realizes the highest antenna diversity gain compared to the other techniques.