Patent ID: 8761834

Claim:
A Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) base station comprising: a multi-channel transmitter comprising: an input Fourier Transform Matrix (FTM) having a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports that receives an input signal at one or more input ports of the plurality of input ports and, for each input signal received at an input port, routes at least a portion of the input signal to each output port of the plurality of output ports to produce a plurality of input FTM output signals; a signal processing section having plurality of amplifiers, wherein each amplifier of the plurality of amplifiers of the signal processing section receives an input FTM output signal of the plurality of input FTM output signals, amplifies the received input FTM output signal to produce an amplified signal, and routes the amplified signal to an input port of an output FTM, when an input signal is applied, during a non-MIMO transmission, to only one input port of the plurality of input ports of the input fourier transform matrix, then each of the amplifiers of the plurality of amplifiers amplifies the input signal; an output FTM having a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports, wherein each input port of the plurality of input ports of the output FTM receives a signal that has been amplified by an amplifier of the signal processing section and produces an output signal at an output port of the plurality of output ports based on the plurality of received amplified signals, wherein each output signal at an output port of the plurality of output ports of the output FTM is an amplified version of an input signal received at an input port of the plurality of input ports of the input FTM; and an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas, wherein each antenna of the plurality of antennas is operably coupled to an output port of the plurality of output ports of the output FTM and receives the output signal produced at the output port for transmission to a user equipment, wherein the antenna array performs both MIMO and non-MIMO transmissions for a user equipment, and a processor that is configured to: determine whether a transmission to a user equipment will be a MIMO transmission; if the transmission to the user equipment will not be a MIMO transmission: determine one or more of a path gain, signal attenuation, or path loss associated with each antenna of the antenna array; set a power gain of an antenna with one or more of the largest path gain, smallest signal attenuation, and smallest path loss, to a non-zero value; and set a power gain of the other antennas of the antenna array to zero; if the transmission to the user equipment will be a MIMO transmission: set a power gain of each antenna of the plurality of antennas of the antenna array to a non-zero value.