Patent ID: 8374096

Claim:
A method for selecting antennas in a multiple-input, multiple-output wireless local area network including a plurality of stations, each station includes a set of antennas, the method comprising the steps of: receiving multiple transmitted sounding packets in a station, each sounding packet corresponding to a different subset of the set of antennas; estimating, in the station, a channel matrix for each subset of antennas; and sending, by the station, a frame including a high throughput (HT) control field to initiate a selecting of antennas after estimating the channel matrix for each subset of antennas, such that a subset of the antennas is selected according to the channel matrices, in which the HT control field includes a MCS selection feedback (MFB) field, and if an ASI field is set to “1” or if an MRS field is set to “111”, then the MFB field is used for antenna selection, beam selection, or as a transmitter beam forming control (ASBFC) field, in which ASBFC field includes a command subfield and a data subfield, and in which the data subfield indicates a number of the multiple sounding packets.