Patent ID: 7705779

Claim:
A wireless communication apparatus comprising: a transceiver configured to receive signals; a first combiner having a first set of phase shifter ports that are coupled through the combiner to a first combiner port; a second combiner having a second set of phase shifter ports that are coupled through the combiner to a second combiner port; an electronic elevation phase shifter coupled to the second combiner port; a Butler matrix coupled to the first combiner port and the electronic elevation phase shifter, the Butler matrix configured to form an elevation sum-mode and an elevation difference-mode such that direction of arrival (DOA) of received signals can be determined in elevation first and second sets of phase shifted values of the received signals applied to the respective first and second sets of phase shifter ports to thereby facilitate the formation of beams in the direction of the received signals; two antenna arrays, each of the antenna arrays including a plurality of antenna elements; a first azimuth matrix board coupled to a first one of the antenna arrays; a second azimuth matrix board coupled to a second one of the antenna arrays; a first set of azimuth phase shifters coupled to the first azimuth matrix board and the first set of phase shifter ports; and a second set of azimuth phase shifters coupled to the second azimuth matrix board and the second set of phase shifter ports.