Patent ID: 8619927

Claim:
A system comprising: a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) receiving system comprising a MIMO baseband module having N branches; and a radio distribution network (RDN) connected to the MIMO receiving system, the RDN comprising at least one beamformer, wherein each one of the beamformers is fed by two or more antennas, so that a total number of antennas in the system is M, wherein M is greater than N, wherein each one of the beamformers includes a passive combiner configured to combine signals coming from the antennas coupled to a respective beamformer into a combined signal, wherein the at least one beamformer is further configured to selectively amplify or attenuate in discrete steps, one or more of the signals coming from the M antennas prior to entering the passive combiners, wherein the amplifying or the attenuating is based on one or more qualitative metrics measured by the MIMO baseband module.