An Experiment of Virtual Antenna Arrays for 5G Applications

This paper studies virtual antenna arrays for 5G applications. The study consists of the fabrication of a virtual array to reveal the radiation performance in a real scenario. It is presented with the case of 4, 5, and 6 elements over linear topologies. Each array element comprises one or two antennas built in with a tiny quadcopter drone. The operating frequency is in the lower 5G band of 3.55 GHz. The arrays generate patterns with 11.57 dBi, 12.64 dBi, and 13.51 dBi of directivity. These values can help a swarm of drones communicate with targets at longer distances. The research demonstrates the feasibility of a real virtual antenna array.