Tripolarized antennas unlock more spatial streams in wireless communication
Is Dual Polarization Always Optimal? Unlocking New Spatial Degrees of Freedom
Information Theory
Summary
Wireless systems often use two polarizations of antennas because it works well when signals travel far and behave like flat waves. This paper shows that when devices are closer, a special three-polarization antenna can send more independent signals, improving data capacity. The authors built and tested such antennas indoors and outdoors and found they could send up to three separate data streams instead of just two. This could help future wireless systems send more information at once.
What this means in practice
- •For wireless network engineers: Design multi-antenna systems using tripolarized antennas to increase the number of spatial streams and improve data throughput in indoor and outdoor environments.
- •For smart home device manufacturers: Integrate tripolarized antennas into devices to enhance wireless connectivity and support multiple simultaneous data streams in confined indoor settings.$Commercial implications: Enables selling higher-capacity wireless devices by leveraging tripolarized antennas to boost local data transmission efficiency.
Authors
Adrian Agustin, Xavier Mestre, Carlos Suárez García, Alberto Pellon Sancho
Abstract
Current wireless communication systems are designed based on channel models obtained under the assumption of far-field operation, where electromagnetic waves can be approximated by a planar wave. In those circumstances, dualpolarized antennas seem to be the optimal solution for maximizing the spectral efficiency. However, the recent research on XLMIMO systems represents a paradigm shift, since communication may take place in the near-field and an additional degree of freedom can be achieved. This work presents a modular, lowcost tripolarized antenna at 2.4 GHz band, that is used to experimentally validate theoretical findings about tripolarized antennas, which are commonly based on orthogonal infinitesimal dipoles. The evaluation is carried out in two indoor scenarios and one outdoor scenario, with transmitter comprising multiple tripolarized antennas and a receiver equipped with a single tripolarized antenna. We show that this type of antenna can increase the number of spatial streams up to three or extend the region where terminals are able to achieve two spatial streams