With the rapid changes in wireless communication systems, indoor wireless communication (IWC) technology has undergone tremendous development. Antennas are crucial components of IWC systems that transmit and receive signals within indoor environments. Thus, the development of indoor technology is highly dependent on the development of indoor antennas. However, indoor environments with limited space require the fewest indoor antenna units and the smallest indoor antenna sizes possible. Hence, indoor antennas with compact size and broad applications have become widely preferred. In an IWC system, circularly polarised (CP) antennas are generally important, especially in dense indoor environments, because compared with linearly polarised (LP) antennas, CP antennas reduce polarisation mismatch and multipath losses. This paper combs through the existing studies related to three-dimensional (3D) geometry (nonplanar) or waveguide indoor antennas and the two common approaches to two-dimensional (2D) geometry (planar) indoor antennas, namely, broadband CP printed monopole antennas (BCPPMAs) and broadband CP printed slot antennas (BCPPSAs). The advantages, disadvantages and limitations of previous works are highlighted as well. These research works are summarised, compared and analysed to understand the recent specifications of BCPPMAs and BCPPSAs to generate the most appropriate design structure suitable for current IWC systems.
Keywords: circularly polarised (CP); indoor antennas; indoor wireless communication (IWC); linearly polarised (LP); phase difference (PD); printed antennas.