Method and apparatus for controlling communication beams within a cellular communication system

Abstract

A beam control subsystem ( , FIG. ) provides acquisition, synchronization, and traffic beams ( , FIG. ) to communication devices ( ) within a footprint ( ) of a system node ( ), where each beam comprises a set of beamlets ( ). The subsystem ( , FIG. ) first acquires ( , FIG. ) and synchronizes ( , FIG. and FIG. ) with each communication device. Acquisition involves selecting ( , FIG. ) and combining ( ) sets of beamlets ( , FIG. ), and determining whether any devices within the sets are attempting to acquire the system. If so, synchronization is performed by varying ( , FIG. ) beamlet weighting coefficients to find, based on modem feedback, a combination of coefficients that yields a maximum signal-to-interference+noise ratio for multiple users within a beam. The communication device is then handed off ( ) to a traffic beam. The subsystem ( ) continues, based on modem feedback, to adapt ( , FIG. ) beamlet weighting coefficients in order to track the traffic beam in a manner that provides the maximum SINR.