Patent ID: 8274930

Claim:
A method for communicating in a wireless network including a base station (BS) and a set of mobile stations (MSs) located in a cell, comprising the base station performing steps of the method, comprising the steps of: specifying a time and a subchannel for transmitting at least one sounding signal in a uplink map of a downlink subframe of a superframe, wherein the superframe includes the downlink subframe and an uplink subframe and the downlink subframe further includes a downlink map and an uplink map; broadcasting a set of sounding requests using a set of beams after the downlink map and the uplink map during a period when no beams are formed in the downlink subframe, wherein there is one beam for each sounding request; measuring qualities of sounding signals transmitted by the set of MSs in response to receiving the set of sounding requests; and grouping the set of MSs into subsets according to the qualities, wherein there is one subset associated with each beam.