Evaluating the antenna performance of 802.11n wireless routers in an indoor environment

The antenna performance of three 2×2 802.11n wireless routers is assessed at 2.4GHz using a laptop as a reference client. The analysis combines in-situ measured 3D radiation patterns with state-of-the-art 3D ray-tracing for a number of different client locations and access-point/client orientations in a typical three-floor home. A router employing two PIFAs achieves the highest average signal level on the top floors (3-10dB better); a router with two external dipoles on the same floor level (1-5dB better); and a router with two patches is in-between and results in the largest signal variations (5-15dB larger dynamic range).