Antennas

There are two styles of antennas in use in COSMOS. The first style is directional and used exclusively as part of the large node sectors. The second style is omni-directional and used as part of the medium nodes.

Large node sector antenna (directional)	Medium node antenna (omni-directional)

Directional (large node sector)

The directional antennas are comprised of a horizontal array of four ultra-wideband antenna elements​. Each element is oriented in the vertical plane and spaced 3 inches (7.63mm) from its neighbor. The frequency range covered by the antennas is 900 MHz - 12 GHz. However, due to limitations in the power amplifiers, USRPs, and other RF front end components, the actual frequency ranges are 2.4 - 6 GHz for transmit (non-contiguous, see RF front end for details) and 900 MHz - 6 GHz for receive.

A GPS antenna is located near the transmit/receive antenna and provides the GPS signal to the USRPs in the node.

Directional antenna inside with element numbering

Omni-directional (medium node)

The omni-directional antennas are comprised of four vertically oriented multi-band antennas​ in a 6” (15.24 cm) 2x2 square pattern with a 14.25”x14.25” (36.2x36.2 cm) ground plane. The frequency range covered by the antennas is 1.7 - 6 GHz. However, due to limitations in the power amplifiers, USRPs, and other RF front end components, the actual frequency ranges are 2.4 - 6 GHz for transmit (non-contiguous, see RF front end for details) and 1.7 - 6GHz for receive.

A GPS antenna is located in the middle and provides the GPS signal to the USRPs in the node.

Unpainted omni-directional antenna	Antenna element numbering