In this paper, we study the performance enhancement and reconfigurability of a 5 GHz antenna. The antenna consists of a radiating element and a parabolic reflector. In our work, we compare two types of reflectors: a metallic one that can rotate on the antenna axis and one made up of plasma discharge tubes electrically configured by an RF voltage discharge. To study and compare the two systems, we primarily relied on simulation using two powerful software: COMSOL used to simulate the plasma medium in reflector elements (electron density and collision frequency), and CST Studio Suite utilized to study the characteristics (gain and radiation pattern) of the metallic dipole antenna with each type of the two reflectors. The results highlighted the importance of using plasma reflectors instead of metallic reflectors. Indeed, with plasma reflectors, we obtained a controlling gain value (from a low of 1.46 dB to a high of 13.4 dB) by varying the plasma electron density from \(1.2310^{17} m^{ - 3}\) to \(4.2610^{18} m^{ - 3}\) , and also controlling electrically four different directions: 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees. In contrast, metallic reflectors enable us to achieve a fixed gain value of 10.4 dB, and the directivity of the radiation pattern was mechanically controlled.