Patent ID: 7057555

Claim:
A directional antenna system comprising: a plurality of RF nodes cooperatively forming a directional antenna array for transmitting and receiving wireless signals between a wireless client at a predetermined position in space; at least one network interface assembly for exchanging signals between the plurality of RF nodes and a network, wherein the plurality of RF nodes are distributed in space with respect to each other and the network interface assembly; wherein the plurality of RF nodes converts wireless signals from the wireless client to baseband signals that are sent to the at least one network interface assembly; wherein the plurality of RF nodes converts baseband signals from the at least one network interface assembly to wireless signals sent to the wireless client; wherein the at least one network interface comprises: a beamformer for applying a plurality of antenna weighting factors to the respective RF nodes, for introducing phase differences in the respective transmitted and received wireless signals that produce a directional steering vector for the wireless signals; and a processing arrangement for deriving an array manifold including a respective plurality of antenna weighting factors corresponding respectively to distances between each of the plurality of RF nodes, for producing the directional steering vector for the wireless signals.