Patent ID: 7359679

Claim:
A method for controlling communication between an access point and a client in a wireless network, comprising the steps of: (a) providing an omnidirectional antenna that is used for wireless communications with clients disposed around the omnidirectional antenna, in a network space; (b) providing a directable antenna that is selectively controlled to provide coverage of any of a plurality of different directional spaces, each of the directional spaces overlapping a portion of the network space; (c) identifying a client directional space from among the plurality of different directional spaces, the client directional space facilitating a higher communication rate between the access point and the client than a basic communication rate available between the access point and the client using the omnidirectional antenna; (d) selecting one of the omnidirectional antenna and the directable antenna for communicating with the client based on at least one of: (i) a characteristic of a transmission communicated between the access point and client; and (ii) a characteristic of the wireless network; and (e) when the directable antenna is selected, selectively directing the directable antenna to the client directional space.