| Term | Description |
| beamforming | beamforming is a signal processing technique used in wireless communications, sonars and radars for directional signal tramsmission and reception. Beamforming is achieved by combining elements in a transmitter/antenna array in a way where signals at particular angles experience constructive interference, while others experience destrictive interference. The improvement compared with an omnidirectional reception/transmission is known as the receive/transmit gain (or loss). There are two different methods as applicable to Wi-Fi: on-chip and on-antenna beamforming. On-chip beamforming works by not only boosting total power gain by having multiple antennas in play, but also phasing the antenna signals so that a higher signal "beam" is cast in the receiver's direction while less energy can be expended in other directions. On-antenna beamforming uses a number of antennas and analyzes trasmitted packets to asses signal perfomance. The access point monitors connections in real-time and modifies beams on the fly to fit dynamic conditions. Antennas that need signal boosting get boosted while those that don't are attenuated. |