A Dual-Band Reconfigurable Antenna for IoT Devices in Congested Spectrum Environments

Abstract

Spectral congestion issue has become critical in modern wireless environments due to the enormous growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Therefore, a compact dualband reconfigurable antenna capable of real time frequency agility is designed and implemented using PIN diode based switching to alleviate these challenges. The antenna is fabricated on a low cost FR4 substrate that is amenable to mass deployment of the antenna in the scale of mass market IoT systems. A dual band engineering proposal for this antenna is made to be efficient in two IoT communication bands widely used today: 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz. CST Microwave Studio was used to perform full wave electromagnetic simulations that were then experimentally validated by VNA. A stable directional radiation patterns are observed through the bands, a measured return loss better than −18 dB which confirm robust impedance matching, and a peak gain of 4.2 dBi. Additionally, the reconfiguration time of the PIN diode switching mechanism is less than 10 µs, resulting in near-instantaneous reconfiguration to changing spectrum conditions. These performance characteristics attest to the antenna’s viability in time sensitive, interference aware IoT applications such as smart homes, industrial automation and wearable’s. The results show how the combination of agile antenna architectures helps improve spectral efficiency, robustness of the links, and communication robustness in the future wireless networks.