Antenna selection in a multisector packet radio system

To improve performance on the inbound (mobile-to-base-station) channel of a packet radio system consisting of a base station and a number of mobile users, the area around the base station is divided into M sectors. Signals originating from users in different sectors are received by different directional antennas at the base station. It is shown that, if the number of receivers at the base station is less than M, the selection of the antennas to be connected to the receivers becomes an issue. A number of antenna selection schemes are compared for three different channel models, assuming an ideal antenna pattern. It is found that the scheme that selects the antennas with the largest received signal powers is nearly optimum. The effects of a more practical nonideal antenna pattern are discussed.< >