Frequency Reconfigurable and Wearable Antenna
for Cognitive Radio Application
Jaya Bharath a/l Gopalakrishnan, Muhammad Rifdiadzha B. MohdHussni, Nur Amelia
BtZulfikri and NurSharmeenBt Ismail.
AbstractA frequency reconfigurable
and wearable antenna for cognitive
radio application is proposed. The
antenna is capable of frequency
switching at frequency bands between
2.20 and 3.00 GHz. The patch is
resonating at 3.461 dBi GHz, while the
slot produces four different operating
frequencies between 2.20 and 3.00
GHz.Two switches are positioned in the
ground to achieve frequency
reconfigurability. Simulated and
measured results are used to
demonstrate the performances of the
antenna. The simulated and measured
return losses, together with the
radiation pattern are presented.
I. INTRODUCTION
Cognitive radio communication is envisaged to
a be a new/unconventional paradigm of
methodologies for enhancing the performance
of radio communication system through the
efficient utilization of radio spectrum. The
driving force behind the idea of cognitive
communication is the motivation of efficient
and intelligent utilization of the radio
spectrum. Owing to a number of possible
methodologies for achieving the objectives
associated with cognitive radio
communication, it is very difficult to restrict its
definition to a particular system specification.
However, there are common traits of cognitive
communication systems, for instance,
according to [1], a cognitive communication
system is an intelligent communication system,
capable of learning from its radio environment
and accordingly adapting its operational
parameters for reliable communication and
efficient utilization of radio spectrum. In order
for a communication system to be intelligent,
capable of learning, adaptive capable of
learning,adaptive, and reliable (thus cognitive)
there is a need of joint cooperation between
several protocols across the layers. Learning
from the environment constitutes an important
part of a cognitive radio communication
system. The learning phase employs many
(hard and soft) parameters; for instance, a
cognitive radio should be capable of sensing
the spectrum over a wide range of frequencies
and then combining the information gathered
from sensing (hard parameters), with
(optionally) using various soft-parameters (e.g.
user preference, protocols interaction). The
hard and soft parameters of learning stage
work as an input to the decision making
module. Such a decision- making module is
deemedto be intelligent so that it can take an
appropriate decision according to the input
parameters. The behaviour of the
communication system in terms of its
operational parameters has to be adaptive in
order to support the decisions of a decision
making module. Increasing the adaptability of
the overall communication system comes at
the price of higher protocol/hardware
complexity; nevertheless, higher adaptability
would imply the possibility of higher degrees of
cognition in the system. It is important to notice
that a key enabler for realization of the
learning phase, more specifically for gathering
the hard parameters, is the capability of re-
configurability in the underlying hardware and
the associated protocol suite [2]. For
accomplishing the spectrum sensing the
underlying hardware (antenna) should be
capable of operating over a wide range of
frequencies. The decision making module may
then direct the actual transmitter to operate at
a particular frequency band. As the cognitive
communication is still in its evolutionary
research phases, there is no specification for
the underlying hardware which should conform
to the specification of a cognitive
communication system. However, the use of
wideband antennas for spectrum sensing and
narrow band antennas for transmission has
been proposed by the research community [3-
4]. From the antenna design perspective, there
is an increase in the demand for multi wide-
band antennas which can be easily integrated
with the communication system. Electronic
reconfigurability is usually achieved by
incorporating switches, variable capacitors or
phase shifters in the topology of the antenna.
Most frequently, lumped components such as
PIN diodes, varactor diodes, or MEMES
switches or varactors are used in the design of
reconfigurable antennas. There are three
different categories of reconfigurable antenna;
the first type being frequency reconfigurable.
The aim of tuning the frequency of the antenna
is to have single multifunctional antenna as a
small terminal for many services. In [5] a
tuning method has been introduced to tune
dual band for mobile application. In [6]
reconfigurable dual-band antenna for wireless
application has been reported with very wide
range tenability. In [7] reconfigurable patch Fig. 1 Geometry of the proposed antenna
antenna for satellite and terrestrial application
has been reported. From all the above papers, TABLE I
the radiation patterns of these antennas DETAILS OF SWITCH CONFIGURATION
remain unchanged when the frequencies are
tuned from one band to another. The second Configuration S1 S2
type of reconfigurable antenna is radiation
patterns re-configurability, where the F1 OFF OFF
frequency band remains unchanged while the F2 ON ON
radiation pattern changes upon the system F3 OFF ON
requirements. The antenna can steer their F4 ON OFF
radiation patterns beams to different direction.
These types of re-configurability have been
reported recently in [8-10]. The third type is
polarization reconfigurable. This type can III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
provide improvements to the signal reception
performance in a multipath fading environment The proposed antenna is stimulated and measured.
as well as providing an additional degree of The corresponding return loss result against
freedom to improve link quality as a form of frequency are presented. Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and
switched antenna diversity. A reconfigurable Fig. 5 are shows the simulated return loss result.
microstrip patch antenna with switchable
circular polarization using a piezoelectric
transducer (PET) is reported in [11].

II. DESIGN AND CONFIGURATION.

In this section, the structure of the proposed

antenna is described. Fig. 1 shows the geometry of
Fig. 2 Stimulated return loss, 11 results.
the proposed antenna. The antenna is fabricated on
a Felt substrate with a thickness of 3 mm,
permittivity of 1.44, and loss tangent of 0.044. the
patch size is 70 mm x 60 mm. the length of the
transmission line is 11 mm with a width of 8 mm.
the switch 1 (-7 mm), and switch 2 (7 mm) is
placed at the middle of the slot. The total length of
the slot is 18 mm. By changing the effective length
of the slot, two different resonant frequency band
can be produced.
Fig. 3 Stimulated return loss, 11 results.
Fig. 4 Stimulated return loss, 11 results.

Fig. 8 Simulated and measured radiation pattern for

E-plane (a) and H-plane (b).

Fig. 5 Stimulated return loss, 11 results.

The proposed antenna is capable to reconfigured at

two different frequency bands. From the simulated
and measured radiation patterns, directional
radiation patterns are obtained at the highest
resonant frequency, F1, while the lower resonant
Fig. 9 Simulated and measured radiation pattern for
frequencies F2-F4 produce a bidirectional radiation
E-plane (a) and H-plane (b).
patterns, and omnidirectional radiation patterns are
achieved at F5-F9. Figs. 5-Fig. 7 show the radiation IV.CONCLUSION
patterns of the proposed antenna at the resonant
frequencies of F1, F5, and F9 in E- and H-plane. A frequency-reconfigurable microstrip patch
The gain of the proposed antenna at the highest switchable to ground antenna has been presented.
resonant frequency F1 is 3.461dBi. The proposed antenna is capable to reconfigure up
to two different frequency bands from 2.2 to 3.3
GHz. This shows that the proposed antenna is
potentially suitable for cognitive radio application.

REFERENCES

Fig. 6Simulated and measured radiation pattern for

E-plane (a) and H-plane (b).

Fig. 7Simulated and measured radiation pattern for

E-plane (a) and H-plane (b).