Design and Validation of an Antenna Array for Cloud Radio Access Network Applications

This article presents a 4×4 antenna array for cloud radio access networks (C-RAN) applications which uses traditional rectangular patches as radiating element. The structure is modeled, designed and simulated using HFSS v 13.0 and validated experimentally. A comparative analysis of series feed and corporate feed antenna array has been reviewed. There after the combination of corporate and series fed technique was used for proposed antenna array design. The physical size of the projected antenna array in terms of guided wavelength is 6.32 λg × 4.47 λg at operating frequency of 10 GHz. The presented antenna array exhibited directivity and peak gain of 23.02 dB and 10.9 dB respectively, which are also considered as advantageous feature over others reported. As the presented antenna array observes 566 MHz of impedance bandwidth at resonance, can be used for C-RAN application, so that more number of signals can be accommodated in a single wireless application.