Self-configurable mesh network for wireless broadband access

A system for providing wireless broadband access to premises, comprising:

• a network of Access Points (APs) comprising a radio sub-system, and an antenna subsystem comprised of at least one antenna-aperture, each antenna-aperture capable of forming and pointing at least one beam;
• CPEs capable of two concurrent functional modes, relay-mode-CPE when transmitting data on the forward link direction to other CPEs, and client-mode-CPE when receiving data on 15 the reverse link direction from APs or relay-mode-CPEs;
• CPEs comprising a radio sub-system, and an antenna sub-system comprised of one client-antenna-aperture and at least one relay-antenna-aperture, the client-antenna-aperture capable of forming a one beam and pointing the beam within 360 degrees in azimuth, the relay-antenna-aperture capable of forming and pointing at least one beam;
• the radio sub-system comprised of an RF transceiver, a beam forming sub-system, a baseband sub-system and a processor sub-system, capable of transmitting a reference signal, and receiving and estimating signal strength of reference signals;
• the an azimuthal angular range that covers one sector is further divided into at least one sub-sector, each sub-sector is covered by one beam, and each AP or relay-mode-CPE periodically transmits a reference signal on each of the beams covering its sub-sectors;
• and
• the client-antenna-aperture sequentially points a beam toward each sub-sector, searches for reference signals on each sub-sector, estimates the signal strength of detected reference signals, sends an association request message to the AP/relay-mode-CPE from which it receives the highest reference signal strength, and upon reception of association request message acknowledgement from the AP/relay-mode-CPE establishes communications with the said AP/relay-mode-CPE.