Patent ID: 8089890

Claim:
A method for transmitting high rate data within a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprises: selecting one of a plurality of predetermined data rates for a data transmission rate; when the selected data transmission rate is between a first predetermined data rate and a second predetermined data rate of the plurality of predetermined data rates, enabling two transmission paths and activating two antennas for use in the two transmission paths; when the data transmission rate is greater than the second predetermined data rate, enabling four transmission paths and activating four antennas for use in the four transmission paths; for each of the enabled transmission paths, determining the following to provide the data transmission rate over the enabled transmission paths: channel bandwidth; level of constellation; number of data subcarriers; rate code; and cyclic prefix duration; and operating a MIMO WLAN transceiver to transmit at the data transmission rate over the enabled transmission paths according to the determined channel bandwidth; level of constellation, number of data subcarriers, rate code, and cyclic prefix duration.