Abstract: The invention relates to a radio system and a method of determining the transmission direction. The radio system comprises at least one base station communicating with terminals within its area by emitting a radiation pattern extending over the whole cell area and directional radiation patterns covering only part of the cell area. The base station transmits base-station-related information on a common control channel to the terminals. In the solution of the invention, the base-station-related information transmitted by the base station comprises a general part and a beam-specific part. The base station uses the radiation pattern extending over the whole cell area when transmitting the general part. Each beam-specific part is transmitted by using a specific radiation pattern.

Abstract: In a satellite cellular communication system (10), a phased array antenna (41) includes a dynamic beamformer (50) that provides individual antenna beams (35) within which communications with subscriber units (26) take place. The satellites (12) are located in several orbits (14). As the satellites move with respect to Earth's surface, each of the antenna beams is stepped backward (104) to compensate for the satellites movement. After each satellite travels a distance equal to a predetermined portion of the satellites' spacing in the orbit, each satellite's antenna beams are stepped forward (116) to replace the previous satellite's footprint. Accordingly, cell-to-cell hand-off is not required for subscriber units communicating within an antenna beam.