Page 178 - Antennas for Base Stations in Wireless Communications

Advanced Antennas for Radio Base Stations 151

(a) (b) (c)
Figure 4.13 Modular high-gain antenna configurations:
(a) single subpanel, (b) dual subpanels, and (c) triple
subpanels

and operational cost. A study of the potential for coverage improve-
ment in a realistic environment by increasing base station antenna gain
was performed. Changes in antenna gain have a balanced impact on
uplink/downlink link budget performance. With the azimuth half-power
beamwidth set to a fixed value of 65°, the antenna gain increase must
come from a decrease in elevation half-power beamwidth, i.e., from a
corresponding increase in antenna vertical size.
Plots of predicted coverage for three different antenna installations
over hilly terrain are shown in Figure 4.14 for a three-sector site. The
coverage for a standard sector antenna panel with 8° elevation half-
power beamwidth is compared with the coverage for two high-gain
antennas. The high-gain antennas comprise, respectively, two and three
vertically stacked subpanels (identical to the sector antenna) combined