Patent ID: 8199724

Claim:
One or more non-transitory computer storage media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computer-based multiple beam antenna base station to: associate each of a number of multiple antenna beams with an independent base station, resident receiver for each of said beams; simultaneously monitor each of the number of multiple antenna beams; determine signal quality of a preamble of an uplink transmission from the number of subscriber stations via the number of multiple antenna beams; issue a signal quality report from each of the resident receivers to determine which of the number of multiple antenna beams is directed to a particular one of a number of subscriber stations to the multiple beam antenna base station; and communicate data to the particular subscriber station via the antenna beam that is directed to the particular subscriber station; wherein: the base station comprises a plurality of beam formed antennas, at least one of the beam formed antennas acting as a sector antenna; downlink preamble, frame control header bursts, and broadcast messages are sent by the sector antenna in all directions covered by the base station and messages intended for the particular subscriber stations are sent by a corresponding beam formed antenna only in a direction corresponding to that particular subscriber station; when a particular amount of time has elapsed since the best communication path was last determined, the multiple beam antenna base station determines a need to utilize the sector antenna for a directed transmission, the multiple beam antenna base station reduces a data rate based on a relative gain of a beam formed and the sector antenna.