WIRELESS ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM

An access control system is described for controlling access to a wireless communication system. The access control system employs a beam-steering based spatial location system in order to spatially locate potential users by means of locating their user equipment and can allow or prevent that user equipment from associating with one or more wireless access points forming a part or the whole of the wireless communication system. The beam-steering based spatial location system is also described and comprises at least one of a transmitter and a receiver together with an antenna array wherein the antenna array is capable of varying the pointing angle of at least two antenna lobes independently without the need to move either the antenna array or its constituent parts physically and wherein the at least two antenna lobes are arranged such that they may partially intersect at one or more pointing angles under electronic control. The antenna array may, for example, comprise at least a first sub-array and at least a second sub-array wherein the second sub-array is oriented substantially orthogonally to the first sub-array.The pointing angle of an antenna lobe or null or other characteristic feature of the antenna radiation pattern of a first sub-array and the pointing angle of an antenna lobe or null or other characteristic feature of the antenna radiation pattern of at least a second sub-array may be independently controllable in order to allow each to separately locate a signal which falls within their respective steering ranges. A point within the area of intersection of the two or more beams, when they are arranged to point at a signal to be located, may be reported to a spatial processing module or any other system, as a spatial location of the signal source or its transmitting antenna.