Patent ID: 8374129

Claim:
A cellular communications network providing wireless radio communication among a plurality of users comprising radio communication equipment located at a plurality of spaced apart sites, each site defining a network access point, said radio communication equipment at each of said plurality of spaced apart sites comprising; A) at least two millimeter wave radio systems, each of said at least two radio systems having an antenna configured to produce a millimeter wave beam with angular spread of less than two degrees and configured for providing millimeter wave radio with other millimeter wave radio systems at other network access points, B) a programmable high-speed communication switch having a plurality of input and output ports, C) power distribution equipment for providing electric power to said millimeter wave systems and an Ethernet switch and said radio communication equipment at least some of said plurality of spaced apart sites also comprising a cellular base station comprising a microwave radio transceiver providing microwave communication and configured to provide point-to-multipoint microwave communication with network base station users located within a region defining a cell or part of a cell, and said radio communication equipment at least some of said plurality of spaced apart sites also comprising additional communication equipment configured for communication with other network user; wherein said high speed switches are comprised of firmware which is configured to recognize tags applied the packets by other of said high speed switches and which is configured to encapsulate and tag incoming packets with a tag identifying one or more output ports of one or more of said high speed switches to which the packet is directed.