Patent ID: 7835768

Claim:
A method for configuring radiation characteristics of an antenna, said antenna including a plurality of radiating elements, wherein each of said radiating elements is associated with at least a respective signal processing chain located in an antenna unit that is integral to the antenna, said at least one respective signal processing chain comprising: at least one module for weighting digital signals, the at least one module configured to apply at least a weighting coefficient to a digital signal; and at least one antenna conversion set interposed between said at least one module for weighting digital signals and a respective one of the radiating elements of the antenna, said antenna conversion set being configured to convert between digital signals processed by the at least one module for weighting digital signals and analog signals transmitted and received at the respective one of the radiating elements, the method comprising: receiving, at the antenna unit, a data signal and a control signal on the same communication link, the data signal corresponding to one or more digital signals to be processed in the antenna unit and the control signal including information indicating at least one of the weighting coefficients applied by the at least one modules for weighting digital signals; configuring at least one weighting coefficient in the at least one modules for weighting digital signals based on the information received at the antenna unit; and applying respective weighting coefficients to digital signals in each of the at least one module for weighting digital signals, said weighting coefficients determining the radiation characteristics of the antenna.