Patent ID: 8135403

Claim:
A method of providing a pilot-beacon on behalf of a cellular base station, comprising: determining a location of a coverage area of the base station; based at least in part on the determined location, dynamically configuring a pilot-beacon radiation pattern to encompass the determined location of the coverage area of the base station, wherein dynamically configuring a pilot-beacon radiation pattern to encompass the determined location of the coverage area of the base station comprises programmatically adjusting one or more parameters of a pilot beacon antenna arrangement based on the determined location of the coverage area of the base station, wherein the one or more parameters are selected from the group consisting of power level, beamwidth, azimuth, and tilt; and emitting a pilot beacon with the configured pilot-beacon radiation pattern, whereby the pilot-beacon with the pilot-beacon radiation pattern facilitates handoff of a mobile station to the base station.