Patent ID: 8290539

Claim:
A beam selection method, comprising: receiving, by a base station, channel quality indicator feedback for each combination of a second number, N s , of supported beams from a first number of beams, N m , from a subscriber station, the subscriber station comprising a third number of antennas, N n , wherein the second number, N s , is less than or equal to the third number, N n ; receiving, by the base station, an index of a best combination of the second number, N s , of supported beams from the subscriber station; receiving, by the base station, a channel quality indicator corresponding to the best combination from the subscriber station; combining, by the base station, the subscriber station with a second subscriber station if the base station also received the best combination from the second subscriber station but occupies different beams in the best combination; and transmitting, by the base station, data using the supported beams if the base station combined the second subscriber station with the subscriber station.