Patent ID: 7697958

Claim:
A beamforming RF repeater, comprising: a beamforming controller; a first array of antennas organized into a plurality of first sub-arrays; a plurality of first RF combiner and decombiner circuits corresponding to the plurality of first sub-arrays, each first RF combiner and decombiner circuit receiving an RF signal from the corresponding first sub-array of antennas, a plurality of first power detectors corresponding to the plurality of first RF combiner and decombiner circuits, each first power detector configured to determine a power of the received RF signal in the corresponding first RF combiner and decombiner circuit, the beamforming controller determining a first beamforming command responsive to the measured powers from the first power detectors, wherein each first RF combiner and decombiner circuit is configured to phase shift in the RF domain the received RF signal from the corresponding first sub-array according to the first beamforming command from the beamforming controller such that a first combined signal formed from the phase-shifted signals from the plurality of first RF combiner and decombiner circuits is received in a first desired beam direction; a second array of antennas organized into a plurality of second sub-arrays; and a plurality of second RF combiner and decombiner circuits corresponding to the plurality of second sub-arrays, wherein each second RF combiner and decombiner circuit is configured to phase shift in the RF domain the first combined signal according to a second beamforming command from the beamforming controller such that a transmitted signal from the second array of antennas is transmitted in a second desired beam direction.