Angular power distribution and mean effective gain of mobile antenna in different propagation environments

We measured the elevation angle distribution and cross-polarization power ratio of the incident power at a mobile station in different radio propagation environments at 2.15 GHz frequency. A novel measurement technique was utilized, based on a wideband channel sounder and a spherical dual-polarized antenna array at the receiver.
Data were collected over 9 km of continuous measurement routes, both indoor and outdoor. Our results show that in non-line-of-sight situations, the power distribution in elevation has a shape of a double-sided exponential function, with different slopes on the negative and positive sides of the peak.
The slopes and the peak elevation angle depend on the environment and base-station antenna height. The cross-polarization power ratio varied within 6.6 and 11.4 dB, being lowest for indoor and highest for urban microcell environments. We applied the experimental data for analysis of the mean effective gain (MEG) of several mobile handset antenna configurations, with and without the user's head.
The obtained MEG values varied from approximately -5 dBi in free space to less than -11 dBi beside the head model. These values are considerably lower than what is typically used in system specifications. The result shows that considering only the maximum gain or total efficiency of the antenna is not enough to describe its performance in practical operating conditions. For most antennas, the environment type has little effect on the MEG, but clear differences exist between antennas.
The effect of the user's head on the MEG depends on the antenna type and on which side of the head the user holds the handset.