Wideband manhole antenna for small cell applications

We propose a wideband antenna for small cell applications, that is designed to be installed in paved street surfaces, such as roads, motorways, or sidewalks. The many interdisciplinary challenges involved in designing such an antenna are addressed in this paper. We trialed six prototypes of our design using a 2×2 MIMO configuration in three locations in a live LTE network in Bern, Switzerland. The measurement results are promising and confirm the feasibility of this idea in a real-world deployment.