A wireless LAN provided for mitigating the effects of signal fading that
results from multipath propagation. The wireless LAN includes a number of
portable clients that, in one embodiment, may be notebook computers. An
access point, or hub, couples the clients to a wired network and/or to
each other. Multipath effects are mitigated in one embodiment by
continually varying the radiation pattern of a transmitting antenna
system associated with the access point. In one alternative embodiment,
the radiation pattern of a receiving antenna system is continually
varied. Numerous approaches are provided to continually varying the
radiation pattern of the respective antenna system, including, but not
limited to, switching between two or more antennas in an array, adjusting
the physical positioning of a single or multiple antennas, adjusting the
effective length of the antenna, and adjusting the respective gain and/or
phase of each of one or more of the signals coupled to antennas in an
array.