Patent ID: 9231671
Filing Date: 2016-01-05
CPC Classification: H04B

Claim Text:
1. A link optimizer apparatus for optimizing a link on a wireless local area network (WLAN), supporting wireless communications between a wireless access point (WAP) node and associated station nodes on a selected one of a plurality of communication channels; and the link optimizer apparatus comprising: a beamform matrix generator configured to generate discrete candidate beamforming matrices for spatially modulating successive communication packets from a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) capable transmitter one of the WAP and station nodes that supports beamforming to a recipient one of the WAP and station nodes that does not support beamforming; a beamform evaluator configured to evaluate discrete ones among the set of candidate beam forming matrices generated by the beamform matrix generator based on a comparison of relative percentages of “ACK” receipt acknowledgements from the recipient one of the WAP and station nodes for each successive communication packet transmitted with each candidate beam forming matrix from the MIMO capable transmitter one of the WAP and station nodes; and to utilize a successfully evaluated one of the candidate beam forming matrices for transmission of subsequent communication packets from the MIMO transmitter one of the nodes to the recipient one of the nodes, thereby avoiding a requirement for either link calibration or a channel matrix or a beamforming matrix from the recipient node.