Patent ID: 7242964

Claim:
A method for generating a composite EM field to carry a signal to at least two terminals, the method comprising the step of directing energy in a plurality of directions, the amount of energy directed in the direction of each of the terminals being a function of the locations and acceptable receive strengths of at least two of the terminals, wherein the direction is an azimuth direction, wherein an acceptable receive strength for a terminal comprises an electromagnetic (EM) field strength at least as large as, but not significantly larger than, the EM field strengths needed for that terminal to receive the signal carried by the EM field; wherein the directing step comprises the steps of: determining for each one of the terminals an EM field that would have to be generated for the one terminal in order to provide an acceptable receive strength thereat, the determining taking into account the strength, at the location of the one terminal, of EM fields previously determined for others of the terminals; repeating the first determining step until the EM fields determined for the at least two of the terminals provide an EM field strength for each of the at least two of the terminals that is substantially equal to its adequate receive strength; and determining the amount of energy to be directed in the direction of each of the terminals based on the EM fields thus determined.