System and method for switching between different antenna patterns to satisfy antenna gain requirements over a desired coverage angle

摘要

A system and method for controlling an antenna arrangement including a plurality of antennas employed in, for example, a user terminal of a communications network, to provide a selected antenna pattern from among different antenna patterns based on, for example, the strength of a communications signal being received by the antenna arrangement of the user terminal, in order to satisfy desired gain and beamwidth requirements. The system and method can employ a switch that can be manually switched to control the antenna arrangement to provide the selected antenna pattern. The switch also can include a plurality of diodes that are controlled automatically or by a manual switch to select the antenna pattern. The plurality of antennas can be selectively activated and deactivated to provide the selected antenna pattern. Also, the plurality of antennas can be stacked vertically in relation to each other, or can include a first antenna and a second antenna disposed within said first antenna. Furthermore, the antenna arrangement can include at least one quadrifilar antenna or at least one octifilar antenna.