Patent ID: 8660210

Claim:
A method of selecting a demodulator, the method comprising: receiving a packet format that will be used for demodulation; and selecting either a Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) spatial equalizer, or a list sphere decoder (LSD) based on the received packet format, comprising: using the LSD when a code rate is greater than or equal to two-thirds; using the LSD when the code rate is between one-half and two-thirds and 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) or lower modulation order is employed; using the MMSE spatial equalizer when the code rate is between one-half and two-thirds and 64 QAM or higher modulation order is employed; using the LSD when the code rate is less than or equal to one-half and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) is employed; and using the MMSE spatial equalizer when the code rate is less than or equal to one-half and QPSK is not being employed, wherein the code rate represents a ratio of a number of bits entering an encoder to a number of bits exiting the encoder.