An antenna assembly includes at least two active or main radiating omni-directional
antenna elements arranged with at least one beam control or passive antenna element
used as a reflector. The beam control antenna element(s) may have multiple reactance
elements that can electrically terminate it to adjust the input or output beam
pattern(s) produced by the combination of the active antenna elements and the beam
control antenna element(s). More specifically, the beam control antenna element(s)
may be coupled to different terminating reactances to change beam characteristics,
such as the directivity and angular beamwidth. Processing may be employed to select
which terminating reactance to use. Consequently, the radiator pattern of the antenna
can be more easily directed towards a specific target receiver/transmitter, reduce
signal-to-noise interference levels, and/or increase gain by using Radio Frequency
(RF), Intermediate Frequency (IF), or baseband processing. A Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output
(MIMO) processing technique may be employed to operate the antenna assembly with
simultaneous beam patterns.
