Spectral Efficiency Improvement in IEEE 802.11n MIMO-OFDM WLAN Communication Systems using Compact Space-Multimode Diversity Stacked Circular Microstrip Patch Antenna Arrays

The support of high spectral efficiency MIMO spatial-multiplexing communication in OFDM-WLAN systems conforming to IEEE 802.11n standard requires the design and use of compact antennas and arrays with low correlation ports. For this purpose, compact spacemultimode diversity provisioning stacked circular multimode microstrip patch antenna arrays (SCP-ULA) are proposed in this paper and their performance in terms of spatial and modal correlations, ergodic spectral efficiencies as well as compactness with respect to antenna arrays formed of vertically-oriented center-fed dipole elements (DP-ULA) and dominant-mode operating circular microstrip patch antennas (CP-ULA) are presented. The lower spatial and modal correlations and the consequent higher spectral efficiency of SCPULA with ML detection over statistically-clustered Kroenecker-based correlated Rayleigh fading channels with respect to DP-ULA and CP-ULA at significantly lower antenna and array sizes represents SCP-ULA as a promising solution for deployment in terminals, modems and access points of next-generation high-speed 802.11n MIMO-OFDM WLAN systems.