Patent ID: 7460834

Claim:
A method for utilizing a directional beam antenna in a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), comprising: (a) the WTRU registering with a wireless communication system including a serving cell and at least one neighbor cell; (b) the WTRU measuring quality of the signals received from the serving cell with a plurality of directional beams while steering the directional beam antenna; (c) selecting a particular one of the directional beams having the best signal quality as an active beam; (d) determining whether quality of signal from the serving cell via the active beam is below a predetermined threshold; and (e) if the quality of signal from the serving cell on the active beam is below the predetermined threshold, repeating steps (b)-(d) to switch the active beam to a beam having the best signal quality, and if the quality of signal from the serving cell on the active beam is not below the predetermined threshold, proceeding to step (d) after a predetermined time interval without switching the active beam.