Patent ID: 7042394

Claim:
A method for determining direction of transmission using an antenna array having a plurality of panels, each panel configured to receive signals, comprising: building a gain table for each of the plurality of panels, the gain table having a plurality of gain values corresponding to a plurality of angles; directing each of the plurality of panels to receive signals from a transmitting node; for each panel, building a first table having data representing received signal power difference between the panel and a first neighboring panel and a second table having data representing received signal power difference between the panel and a second neighboring panel; identifying which of the plurality of panels receives signals with the maximum received power; if two or more panels receive signals with the same maximum received power, identifying the panel from the two or more panels that has the minimum signal power difference using the first and second tables associated with the two or more panels; and for the identified panel: searching the gain table associated with its first neighboring panel to identify a first transmission angle, if any; searching the gain table associated with its second neighboring panel to identify a second transmission angle, if any; if either the first transmission angle or the second transmission angle or both are available, determining a transmission angle relative to the transmitting node using the first and second transmission angles; and if the first and second transmission angles are null, setting direction being faced by the identified panel as the transmission angle.