Leveraging tripolar antenna diversity to improve link reliability in severe multipath environments

In this work, empirical results demonstrate the efficacy of tripolar antenna diversity to improve data packet delivery in environments prone to severe multipath, i.e., those that may be seen for industrial IoT applications. The work leveraged an Arduino platform with a XBee wireless module and compared performance (i.e., link reliability) when a baseline monopole antenna was used versus a prototype, 3D printed tripolar antenna system. The testing was conducted by placing both antennas inside of a compact reverberation chamber. We also compared empirical data with simulated data and showed that for both cases, the tripolar antenna system performed approximately three times better than the monopole antenna. Finally, we conducted tests under dynamic conditions where the wireless node switched, at various rates, between the three antenna elements, choosing the best option to send data packets and results showed that the tripolar antenna can mitigate the high multipath effect with 95% successful packet delivery.