Chapter A116 AerohiveFigure 6 Directional antenna patternsOmnidirectional AntennasYou typically orient omnidirectional antennas vertically, positioning them on all devices in the samedirection. Omnidirectional antennas create coverage areas that can be toroidal (doughnut-shaped) orcardioid (heart- or plum-shaped), broadcasting to the sides much more effectively than up or down (seeFigure 7). In general, this is good for most office environments because you have large flat floors. However, itcan be a problem in environments with high ceilings.Figure 7 Omnidirectional antenna radiation patternsMIMOMIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out) is a major WLAN advancement introduced in the IEEE 802.11n standard inwhich multiple RF links are formed on the same channel between the transmitter and receiversimultaneously. To accomplish this, the transmitter separates a single data stream into multiple spatialstreams, one for each RF chain (an antenna + various digital signal processing modules linked to theantenna). The transmit antennas at the end of each RF chain then transmit their spatial streams. TheHigher gainLower gain(Bird’s eye view)PatchantennasHigher gainToroidal pattern Cardioid pattern