Wlan access point with extended coverage area

Disclosed are systems and methods which provide high bandwidth data communication with respect to a large coverage area using smart antenna and/or directional antenna (referred to herein as multi-beam antenna) technology. Circuitry may be provided at a WLAN AP to provide selection of particular antenna beams used in the downlink and/or uplink, control of multicast transmission, control of unicast transmission, and to provide antenna pattern shaping techniques. Embodiments implement multi-beam antenna technology with little or no hardware modifications to AP circuitry. Other embodiments implement multi-beam technology using radio-front end and/or radio hardware modifications to AP circuitry. Various diversity techniques may be implemented, such as selection diversity, maximum ratio combining, and equal gain combing. To provide desired antenna pattern shaping, phase offsets with respect to a signal as transmitted in each antenna beam may be employed.