Abstract: A base station in a fixed wireless point to multi-point communication system includes a MAC processor and inner and outer Ethernet switches. The inner Ethernet switch communicates with the outer Ethernet switch on a plurality of ports, with packets to or from each connected remote station always traveling over a single inter-switch port pair dedicated to that remote station. Mapping the base station-remote links' downstream packets from the MAC processor is achieved with tags added in the inner Ethernet switch (downstream packets, based upon which inter-switch port pair carried the packet) and in the MAC processor (upstream packets).

Abstract: At least one remote station communicates with a base station in a fixed wireless communication network. Data is transmitted in a series of short duration data frames, at any of at least four discrete transmission power levels selected for that data frame, and using any of at least four modulation-coding levels selected for that data frame. When the amount of data being transmitted in that data frame requires the highest adequate modulation-coding level as determined by received signal quality information including signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio, data is transmitted at the highest optimal power level. When the amount of data being transmitted in that data frame requires less than the highest adequate modulation-coding level, data is transmitted at a lower modulation-coding level sufficient to transmit the amount of data for that frame and at a correspondingly reduced power level.