Patent ID: 8072946

Claim:
A method comprising: determining, at a wireless network station, when a neighbor wireless network station is transmitting and receiving to determine when the neighbor wireless network station is receiving transmissions; estimating, at the wireless network station, a channel between the wireless network station and the neighbor wireless network station, wherein said estimating a channel is based at least in part on beamforming weights of a response packet transmitted from the neighbor wireless network station; estimating, at the wireless network station, a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a link between the neighbor wireless network station and a third wireless network station, based at least in part on detecting a data rate of packets transmitted from the neighbor wireless network station to the third wireless network station; determining transmit beamforming information for use by the wireless network station to reduce interference caused to the neighbor wireless network station when the neighbor wireless network station is receiving transmissions from the third wireless network station, wherein said determining is based at least in part on the estimated channel or the estimated SNR, or combinations thereof, to select a steering vector in a beamforming matrix that maximizes throughput between the neighbor wireless network station and the third wireless network station; and transmitting from the wireless network station to a target wireless network station using the transmit beamforming information.