Patent ID: 8055303

Claim:
A method of controlling beam forming in a mobile cellular network, wherein the method comprises the steps of: applying, by antenna units of base stations of a cluster of neighbored base stations, a respective beam pattern sequence on each sector of a cell served by the respective base station, wherein the beam pattern sequence is selected from a respective predefined set of beam pattern sequences and each beam pattern sequence defines a sequence of beam subsets used for communication with mobile units, informing, by one of the base stations of the cluster which acts as trigger base station, all neighbored base stations of the cluster of neighbored base stations not to change their beam pattern sequence, controlling, by the trigger base station, the antenna unit of the trigger base station to change the beam pattern sequence applied on the sectors of the cell and sequently apply two or more different beam pattern sequences of the predefined set of beam pattern sequences on the respective sector, or to send a set of orthogonal pilot signals, triggering, by the trigger base station, one or more mobile units located in the cluster of neighbored base stations to calculate one or more signal quality parameters for currently applied beam pattern sequences of the trigger base station, or to calculate one or more signal quality parameters based on the received pilot signals and the knowledge of the antenna weights of the beam subsets for two or more beam pattern sequences selecting, by the trigger base station, an optimal beam pattern sequence which minimizes interference and maximizes throughput to mobile units of neighbored cells of the mobile cellular network from the set of the predefined beam pattern sequences based on the one or more calculated signal quality parameters, and applying, by the antenna unit of the trigger base station, the optimal beam pattern sequence as new beam pattern sequence on the respective sector.