A Shark-Fin Mounted Six-Lobe Radiation Pattern DRA Enabling Reliable V2X Connectivity for Enhanced Safety in Intelligent Transportation Systems

Abstract

Intelligent transportation systems represent a real-world example of ultra-dense sensor deployment, where numerous sensors monitor parameters, such as road slipperiness, speed limits, wind direction, pothole formation, acceleration of surrounding vehicles, and traffic density, to enable autonomous driving and enhance road safety. However, real-time wireless acquisition of such crucial environmental data using individual sensor nodes increases both cost and maintenance complexity. Alternatively, communication among curbside nodes, roadway infrastructure, and front- and rear-side vehicles provides an efficient solution. The use of multiple directional antennas may lead to increased power consumption and battery drain. To address this limitation, a compact six-lobe dielectric resonator antenna is proposed to enable parallel communication between sensor nodes and surrounding vehicles. The proposed antenna adopts a shark-fin profile and employs a cross patch to excite two pairs of rectangular dielectric resonators arranged in a quad configuration, enclosed by a dielectric superstrate. It operates in a hybrid mode and generates directional radiation lobes in two azimuth sectors of 315°–45° and 135°–226° along with four additional lobes in the elevation plane covering 48°–85°, 100°–130°, –38° to –80°, and –102° to –143°. At a resonant frequency of 5.90 GHz (C-band), it achieves a 2.53% impedance bandwidth and a peak gain of 6 dBi. Due to its shark-fin profile, low design complexity, and cost-effectiveness, along with a distinctive six-lobe radiation pattern, the proposed antenna is well-suited for ultra-dense wireless data collection in vehicle-to-everything communication systems, including shark-fin rooftop automotive antennas and other dense sensor network applications.