Realistic Antenna Array Modeling for 5G Communications
(Room Ballroom G)
17 Oct 18
3:45 PM
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4:15 PM
The 5th generation mobile networks promises a revolution in the way we connect, with faster data transfer and the capacity to support a higher density of users. 5G is expected to improve along this line of services to offer high speed internet, high definition video streaming, efficiency and real time connectivity to IoT enabled devices, thus promising ubiquitous connectivity at three times the speed of 4G. In the presented work, a street intersection environment, signal communication between the cell tower and the street light pole is studied with high power transfer and solar loading in mind. At the pole level, the design of a beam steered antenna array is showcased. The use of the theoretical infinite array allows the designer to model the full array from a single cell, thus saving on computational time and resources, and at the same time, allows the designer to calculate antenna parameters such as element pattern and impedance for boresight as well as oblique angles. A finite array is created to account for edge effect and coupling using the domain decomposition technique to again save on computational time. By using the beam steering toolkit provided by ANSYS HFSS, designers can see the performance of the array when the beam is steered to different angles in order to provide coverage to different end user devices at the street level. In addition to simulating the antenna on a platform, shooting and bouncing rays technique can give insight on the coverage zones in the city block with each bounce of the signal. This helps the designer identify the coverage area footprint and work on reducing dead zones. Once the antennas have been designed and meet their individual performance requirements, we still need to assess how they will perform when deployed in the actual operational environment for which they are intended. Link budget analysis of the antennas in their installed environments using appropriate RF propagation models and standards-based radio libraries is illustrated to assess the quality of service for the system in the presence of other potentially interfering wireless systems.