Multiband reconfigurable antennas for future wireless communication systems

Evolution in wireless technology has resulted in remarkable capabilities, but ever increasing user demand and limited bandwidth spectrum has always instigated the researchers to think of new techniques that can improve network efficiency in terms of size, power and bandwidth consumption. Antenna designing is one of the key factors in achieving this goal and as a result plethora of research work has been conducted in past for crafting sustainable reconfigurable multiband antennas for different wireless services. The concept of combining the wideband-narrowband reconfiguration functionality into a single antenna has created an effective solution for optimizing antenna size and enhancing flexibility in antenna designing. Moreover; this combination has offered the advantage of pre-filtering, which has helped in mitigating the level of interference at the receiver end and has provided an edge over the fixed or non-reconfigurable transceivers. This paper has presented a detailed outlook about reconfigurable antennas and the various techniques involved in attaining reconfigurability in antenna design. The review has been supported by some antenna designs and simulation results that have provided an insight into reconfiguration features. Some new technologies employed in antenna design have also been briefly presented.