Low-Profile and Low-Visual Impact Smart Electromagnetic Curved Passive Skins for Enhancing Connectivity in Urban Scenarios

This paper explores the possibility of integrating a smart electromagnetic skin into a street light or traffic light pole to enhance the coverage of a 5G base station operating in the millimeter-waves frequency band with the consequent improvement of the wireless network performance. Specifically, the electromagnetic characteristics of a curved smart electromagnetic skin, which can be easily integrated into a cylindrical radome enclosing the pole, have been analyzed and compared with those of a planar solution. Additionally, the coverage provided by a curved smart electromagnetic skin in a real urban scenario has been considered. The obtained results confirm that using a curved smart electromagnetic skin is both feasible and convenient from several points of view: it guarantees better performance than a planar configuration occupying the same volume, it is simpler to mount and it has a lower visual impact.