Patent ID: 8095069

Claim:
A method, comprising: communicating in a wireless personal area network (WPAN) by using a reliable low-rate omni-directional communications mode implemented as TX-RX space scanning using directional antennas, and a high-rate directional communications mode with beamformed directional antennas; wherein said WPAN is a piconet that includes a central station, a piconet controller (PNC) and other station devices (DEVs) and a transmission is done using consecutive in time superframes divided into functional periods with the functional period intervals set by the PNC for all stations and wherein there is only a low-rate omni-directional transmission mode or only a high-rate directional transmission mode within one functional period and wherein a functional period using a low-rate omni-directional mode is set in adjacent time intervals and the number of transitions from the high-rate directional mode to the low-rate omni-directional mode is minimized when measured at the duration of several superframes.