A digital or smart array antenna has at least one radio and a processor coupled to each antenna element. The processor is coupled with programmable logic that demodulates a plurality of signals received at one antenna element to obtain demodulation symbols. After obtaining the demodulation symbols, the programmable logic applies a weighting function. In this order or sequence, the digital array antenna is able to reduce the processing requirements associating within the signal information. The reduced processing requirements enable the signal information to be shared with adjacent antenna elements that may be timing adjusted between adjacent elements. Then, the sharing continues across all elements the array until the signal reaches an edge of the array. At the edge of the array, a signal beam may be generated that is steer in response to the processed signal information shared between all the elements in the array.