Patent ID: 7480486

Claim:
In a wireless repeater, a method comprising: communicating with a radio access network on a plurality of first air interface beams cooperatively defining a first air interface between the wireless repeater and the radio access network, wherein each first air interface beam defines a respective forward link and a respective reverse link, and wherein the forward link of each first air interface beam defines a respective signal characteristic; communicating with at least one mobile station on a second air interface; for each first air interface beam, passing communications received on the forward link of the first air interface beam along to the mobile station on the second air interface; selecting a given one of the first air interface beams based on the signal characteristic of the forward link of the given first air interface beam; and receiving reverse link communications from the mobile station on the second air interface, and passing the received reverse link communications to the radio access network on only the selected first air interface beam, while continuing to pass forward link communications from each first air interface beam to the mobile station.