Antenna selection considerations, Understanding antenna attributes, Antenna pattern – ProSoft Technology ILX34-AENWG User Manual
Page 69: 8 antenna selection considerations
Antenna Selection Considerations
PSW-PWD ♦ ProSoft Software
User Manual
ProSoft Wireless Designer
ProSoft Technology, Inc.
Page 69 of 91
July 8, 2009
8 Antenna
Selection
Considerations
In This Chapter
Understanding Antenna Attributes......................................................... 69
Antenna Types ...................................................................................... 71
Considering The Signal Path (Line-of-Sight) ......................................... 73
Antenna Mounting Considerations ........................................................ 73
Considering Antenna Direction..............................................................74
8.1
Understanding Antenna Attributes
RadioLinx antennas come in a variety of types. All types are categorized by three
important electrical characteristics:
Antenna
Pattern
Antenna
Gain
Antenna
Polarity
8.1.1 Antenna
Pattern
Information between two wireless devices is transferred via electromagnetic
energy radiated by one antenna and received by another. The radiated power of
most antennas is not uniform in all directions and has varying intensities. The
radiated power in various directions is called the pattern of the antenna. Each
antenna should be mounted so that its direction of strongest radiation intensity
points toward the other antenna or antennas with which it will exchange signals.
Complete antenna patterns are three-dimensional, although often only a two-
dimensional slice of the pattern is shown when all the antennas of interest are
located in roughly the same horizontal plane, along the ground rather than above
or below one another.
A slice taken in a horizontal plane through the center (or looking down on the
pattern) is called the azimuth pattern. A view from the side reveals a vertical
plane slice called the elevation pattern.
An antenna pattern with equal or nearly equal intensity in all directions is
omnidirectional. In two dimensions, an omnidirectional pattern appears as a
circle (in three dimensions, an omnidirectional antenna pattern would be a
sphere, but no antenna has true omnidirectional pattern in three dimensions). An
antenna is considered omnidirectional if one of its two dimensional patterns,
either azimuth or elevation pattern, is omnidirectional.