Spatial Fading Simulator Using a Cavity-Excited Circular Array (CECA) for Performance Evaluation of Antenna Arrays

In this paper we propose a novel spatial fading simulator to evaluate the performance of an array antenna and show its spatial stochastic characteristics by computer simulation based on parameters verified by experimental data. We introduce a cavity-excited circular array (CECA) as a fading simulator that can simulate realistic mobile communication environments. To evaluate the antenna array, two stochastic characteristics are necessary. The first one is the fading phenomenon and the second is the angular spread (AS) of the incident wave. The computer simulation results with respect to fading and AS show that CECA works well as a spatial fading simulator for performance evaluation of an antenna array. We first present the basic structure, features and design methodology of CECA, and then show computer simulation results of the spatial stochastic characteristics. The results convince us that CECA is useful to evaluate performance of antenna arrays. key words: spatial fading simulator, cavity, CECA, antenna array performance evaluation