Patent ID: 7594010

Claim:
A method of transmitting data across an electronic data communication system comprising a plurality of terminals that can send and receive data in the form of electromagnetic waves to and from at least one of the terminals, which method comprises the steps of: (a) identifying at least one control terminal, at least one target terminal and at least one relaying terminal from the plurality of terminals; (b) using the control terminal to instruct the at least one relaying terminal to receive and relay data intended for the at least one target terminal, so that the at least one target terminal can receive data directly from at least one of said plurality of terminals, and from the at least one relaying terminal; (c) applying a multiple-input multiple-output communication technique to transfer data to the target terminal from the at least one terminal and at least one relaying terminal thereby increasing capacity of the system; (d) monitoring the capacity of the system after the at least one relaying terminal has have begun relaying to the at least one target terminal to determine whether the system capacity is improved or degraded as a result; (e) if the system capacity has been degraded, determining whether or not the addition of at least one additional relaying terminal would increase the system capacity; and (f) if so, instructing the at least one additional relaying terminal to receive and relay data intended for the at least one target terminal; and (g) further monitoring the capacity of the system and repeating steps (e) and (f) if the capacity of the system has been degraded.