Patent ID: 8665845

Claim:
A network element for a wireless communication system locatable to couple at least one base station to an antenna array, wherein the network element comprises: at least one receiver arranged to receive a radio frequency signal from the at least one base station or the antenna array; radio frequency conversion circuitry arranged to down-convert a received radio frequency signal to a baseband signal; analogue-to-digital conversion logic arranged to convert the baseband signal to digitized signals; beam-form processing logic arranged to perform active beam-forming adjustment on the digitized signals; digital-to-analogue conversion logic arranged to convert the beam-form adjusted digitized signals to analogue signals; radio frequency conversion circuitry arranged to up-convert the analogue signals to a radio frequency radio signal for forwarding to the at least one base station or antenna array; wherein the network element further comprises a wireless modem operably coupled to the beam-form processing logic and arranged to receive and process at least one command received wirelessly in response thereto perform beam-forming adjustment on the digitized signals.