Simultaneous forward link beam forming and learning method for mobile high rate data traffic

A method for operating a base station serving multiple mobile stations within a predetermined service area, the base station including an adaptive antenna array and forward link beam forming circuit means for forming simultaneous multiple forward link beams, each beam being spatially directed and adapted to serve one of the multiple mobile stations, the base station being connected to a digital network for receiving packets of digital traffic data and for sending said packets to said mobile stations via said adaptive antenna array, the method comprising steps of:

• a. separating the multiple mobile stations into L!/N!(L-N)! groups of mobile stations, where L is a total number of mobile stations presently requesting traffic data transfer and N is an integer corresponding to a maximum number of simultaneous forward link beams capable of being formed by the adaptive antenna array and beam forming circuit means;
• b. determining which of said groups can be served by compatible simultaneous forward link beams and recording each group determined to be compatible as a compatible group,
• c. if a mobile station remains outside of every compatible group determined by step b, reducing the magnitude of N by an integer factor X, and repeating step a and step b until all the L mobile stations are included in compatible groups;
• and,
• d. forming simultaneous plural forward link data beams to mobile stations of a compatible group during a time interval accorded to said group from among a plurality of time intervals within a service cycle, there being a time interval accorded to compatible groups such that the L mobile stations receive digital traffic data during the service cycle.