Patent ID: 8068445

Claim:
A method comprising: at a base transceiver station, determining that there are downlink signals associated with a service flow to be sent to a mobile station at a first frame; searching a scheduling database for pending uplink requests from the mobile station; scheduling uplink transmission slots for the mobile station to transmit uplink signals in a second frame without scheduling the transmission of uplink sounding signals by the mobile station when an uplink request associated with the mobile station is present in the scheduling database; receiving at the base transceiver station uplink signals transmitted from the mobile station during the second frame; at the base transceiver station, computing beamforming weighting vectors for the mobile station based on the uplink signals received from the mobile station during the second frame; and transmitting during a third frame subsequent the first frame the downlink signals from the base transceiver station to the mobile station using the beamforming weighting vectors.