Channel quality measurement using beam steering in wireless communication networks

A communication system for point to multipoint communications, the communication system comprising:

• one or more modal antennas, the one or more modal antennas configured to operate in a plurality of modes, each of the plurality of modes associated with a distinct radiation pattern;
• a transceiver configured to communicate with a plurality of client devices over a wireless communication medium via the one or more modal antennas, the transceiver configured to communicate with a different one of the client devices during each of a plurality of frames;
• one or more control devices configured to:
• determine a selected mode for the one or more modal antennas for each frame of the plurality frames, the selected mode based, at least in part, on one or more channel quality indicator metrics of the one or more modal antennas when configured in each of the plurality of modes to communicate with one of the client devices during a corresponding frame of the plurality of frames;
• configure the one or more modal antennas in the selected mode during each of the plurality of frames;
• access client index data stored in one or more memory devices to determine the selected mode for each of the plurality of frames, the client index data associating the selected mode for a corresponding frame of the plurality of frames with a corresponding client device of the plurality of client devices;
• generate the client index data based at least in part on the channel quality indicator for the one or more modal antennas obtained while operating the communication system in a training mode, wherein the training mode is an interframe training mode, wherein the plurality of frames include one or more transmit frames and one or more receive frames;
• and
• the interframe training mode is implemented during the one or more receive frames and the one or more transmit frames.