| 摘要 |
<p>In a communication system, two multi-beam antennas (20, 20a) laterally spaced from each other each provide coverage of an azimuth sector for receiving signals from a system user. Each antenna provides lower gain performance at regions of crossover (74, 75, 76) between its beams (21', 22', 23', 24'), as compared to peak gain along the center line (70) of each beam (72, Fig. 4). By aligning the two multi-beam antennas at different azimuths within the sector of interest (96), angular diversity is achieved. With the peak gain beam center lines of one multi-beam antenna aligned with regions of beam crossover of a similar antenna (Fig. 5), a minimum gain improvement of 5 dB may typically be obtained with two four-beam antennas (20, 20a), as compared to coverage of the same sector by one or more antennas (12) each having a single sector-wide beam (12'). Systems and methods for achieving angular diversity/spaced diversity operation are described.</p> |
