Patent ID: 8326366

Claim:
A transmission method for a base station in a multi-cell orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless system within a geographic area divided into a plurality of cells, the base station including a plurality of antennas and a plurality of switches coupled to the plurality of antennas, the method comprising: generating signals containing a group of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols associated with a first transmission mode, the first transmission mode allowing unicast transmission to mobile devices within a cell during a first transmission time; generating signals containing a group of OFDM symbols associated with a second transmission mode, the second transmission mode allowing a single, frequency network (SFN) broadcast transmission to mobile devices in multiple cells during a second transmission time; maintaining a mapping associated with the first transmission mode and the second transmission mode, the mapping routing a signal to multiple of the plurality of antennas in the first transmission mode and routing a signal to one of the plurality of antennas in the second transmission mode; transmitting the signals associated with the first transmission mode by turning on multiple of the plurality of switches reflected by the mapping; transmitting the signals associated with the second transmission mode by turning on one of the plurality of switches reflected by the mapping; making a transition between the first transmission mode and the second transmission mode during a cyclic prefix or a cyclic postfix between OFDM symbols; wherein the plurality of antennas produce a first beam pattern during the first transmission mode and a second beam pattern during the second transmission mode; and wherein the first beam pattern is different than the second beam pattern in either an azimuth pattern or an elevation pattern.