Patent ID: 8233941

Claim:
In a communication system comprising a plurality of antennas, a method of communicating with at least a second communication system, the method comprising: determining whether communicating with the second communication system utilizing a plurality of antennas of the communication system in a beam-forming configuration is preferable to utilizing a plurality of antennas of the communication system in a MIMO or MISO configuration, wherein said determining is based, at least in part, on one or both of: energy or power availability; and energy or power consumption; if it is determined that the beam-forming configuration is preferable to the MIMO or MISO configuration, then configuring the communication system to communicate with the second communication system by utilizing a plurality of antennas of the communication system in the beam-forming configuration to form a directional signal; and if it is determined that the MIMO or MISO configuration is preferable to the beam-forming configuration, then configuring the communication system to communicate with the second communication system by utilizing a plurality of antennas of the communication system in the MIMO or MISO configuration to communicate using MIMO or MISO signals.