Spatial routing among microwave backhaul transceivers

1. A system comprising:

a first microwave backhaul transceiver comprising digital circuitry and beamforming circuitry, wherein:

the digital circuitry is operable to determine a characteristic of data to be transmitted by the first microwave backhaul transceiver;

the digital circuitry is operable to configure the beamforming circuitry to select one of a plurality of radiation patterns of a plurality of antenna elements based on the determined characteristic of the data to be transmitted;

a first radiation pattern of the plurality of radiation patterns corresponds to a first microwave backhaul link between the first microwave backhaul transceiver and a second microwave backhaul transceiver; and

a second radiation pattern of the plurality of radiation patterns corresponds to a second microwave backhaul link between the first microwave backhaul transceiver and a third microwave backhaul transceiver.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital circuitry and beamforming circuitry are configured such that the first microwave transceiver is operable to switch between different radiation patterns of the plurality of radiation patterns while maintaining one or more active microwave backhaul links.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic comprises a destination address of the data to be transmitted.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the digital circuitry is operable to select the first radiation pattern as the one of the plurality of radiation patterns when the destination address is a first address; and

the digital circuitry is operable to select the second radiation pattern as the one of the plurality of radiation patterns when the destination address is a second address.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the data to be transmitted is packetized; and

the digital circuitry is operable to perform the determination and configuration on a packet-by-packet basis.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital circuitry comprises memory that stores a routing table having entries associated with the second microwave backhaul transceiver and the third microwave backhaul transceiver.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the configuration of the beamforming circuitry is based on the routing table.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the digital circuitry is operable to determine activity on a third microwave backhaul link which intersects with the first microwave backhaul link; and

the digital circuitry is operable to select the one of the plurality of radiation patterns based on the determined activity on the third microwave backhaul link so as to avoid collisions between the first microwave backhaul link and the third microwave backhaul link.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the digital circuitry is operable to determine the activity on the third microwave backhaul link by accessing a network service which maintains backhaul link activity information.

10. A method comprising:

determining, by digital circuitry of a first microwave backhaul transceiver, a characteristic of data to be transmitted by the first microwave backhaul transceiver; and

configuring, by the digital circuitry, beamforming circuitry of the first microwave transceiver to select one of a plurality of radiation patterns of a plurality of antenna elements based on the determined characteristic of the data to be transmitted, wherein:

a first radiation pattern of the plurality of radiation patterns corresponds to a first microwave backhaul link between the first microwave backhaul transceiver and a second microwave backhaul transceiver; and

a second radiation pattern of the plurality of radiation patterns corresponds to a second microwave backhaul link between the first microwave backhaul transceiver and a third microwave backhaul transceiver.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the configuring comprises switching from a second one of the plurality of radiation patterns to the selected one of the plurality of radiation patterns while maintaining one or more active microwave backhaul links.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the characteristic comprises a destination address of the data to be transmitted.

13. The method of claim 10 , comprising:

configuring, by the digital circuitry, the beamforming circuitry to select the first radiation pattern as the one of the plurality of radiation patterns when the destination address is a first address; and

configuring, by the digital circuitry, the beamforming circuitry to select the second radiation pattern as the one of the plurality of radiation patterns when the destination address is a second address.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the data to be transmitted is packetized, and the determining and configuring is done on a packet-by-packet basis.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the digital circuitry comprises memory that stores a routing table having entries associated with the second microwave backhaul transceiver and the third microwave backhaul transceiver.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the configuring of the beamforming circuitry is based on the routing table.

17. The method of claim 10 , comprising:

determining, by the digital circuitry, activity on a third microwave backhaul link which intersects with the first microwave backhaul link; and

performing, by the digital circuitry, the configuring of the beamforming circuitry based on the determined activity on the third microwave backhaul link so as to avoid collisions between the first microwave backhaul link and the third microwave backhaul link.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the determining the activity on the third microwave backhaul link comprising accessing, by the digital circuitry, a network service which maintains backhaul link activity information.