Patent ID: 7804800

Claim:
A computer implemented method comprising: transmitting a channel sounding packet from a first location, via multiple antennas, said channel sounding packet including: (a) identification information identifying multiple wireless communication devices that are each to generate a beamforming matrix in response to said channel sounding packet, and (b) an order in which said multiple wireless communication devices are to return packets to said first location in response to said channel sounding packet, said packets to include corresponding beamforming matrices; monitoring a receiver for the arrival of said packets from said multiple wireless communication devices; receiving said feedback packets in said receiver; determining a transmit order in which to transmit data to said multiple wireless communication devices, wherein determining a transmit order includes determining said transmit order based at least upon a channel variation speed associated with each of said multiple wireless communication devices; and using said beamforming matrices in said feedback packets to transmit beamformed data to corresponding wireless communication devices, in said transmit order, via said multiple antennas; wherein said identification information is part of a multicast transmit request within said channel sounding packet, said multicast transmit request requesting said multiple wireless communication devices to each return a beamformed data packet to said first location, said beamformed data packet to be generated using a corresponding beamforming matrix; wherein monitoring a receiver includes monitoring said receiver for the arrival of said beamformed data packets from said multiple wireless communication devices; wherein said method further comprises: receiving said beamformed data packets in said receiver; and transmitting a block acknowledgement (ACK) packet to said multiple wireless communication devices to acknowledge the successful receipt of said beamformed data packets, wherein said block ACK packet includes a second multicast transmit request for a subsequent group of data transmissions from wireless communication devices.