Patent ID: 8073490

Claim:
For use in a wireless network comprising a plurality of base stations capable of communicating with a plurality of mobile stations in a coverage area of said wireless network, a beam-forming apparatus associated with a first of said plurality of base stations comprising: a controller configured to, when a few rake fingers are monitored and one dominant rake finger exists, select a switched auxiliary pilot (AP) mode among a plurality of modes, receive from a first of said plurality of mobile stations first information about a first pilot signal comprising a sector pilot signal transmitted in a forward channel by said first base station and having a first antenna beam pattern, receive from said first mobile station second information about a second pilot signal comprising an auxiliary pilot signal transmitted in the forward channel by said first base station and having a second antenna beam pattern that is substantially narrower than said first antenna beam pattern, and use said information about said first and second pilot signals to estimate a direction for a beam-formed transmission to said first mobile station, wherein the plurality of modes comprises at least a non-AP mode in which no auxiliary pilot signal is used, a continuous AP mode in which at least one auxiliary pilot signal is used such that a mobile station hands off to the at least one auxiliary pilot signal, and the switched AP mode in which the sector pilot signal and the auxiliary pilot signal are used such that the mobile station does not hand off to the auxiliary pilot signal.