Patent ID: 8891640

Claim:
A method for beamforming in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system, the method comprising: receiving a data unit from a communication device via a MIMO communication channel; determining whether the data unit satisfies one or more selection criteria, wherein at least one of the one or more selection criteria i) is fixed, and ii) relates to one or more of a) a maximum number of spatial streams supported by the communication device and b) channel bandwidth being used for transmission to the communication device; and when it is determined that the data unit satisfies the one or more selection criteria, selecting the data unit to be used in developing a steering matrix for transmitting data units to the communication device, wherein developing the steering matrix comprises: developing, based on an uplink data unit, an estimate of a reverse channel via which the data unit was received; developing an estimate of a forward channel based on the estimate of the reverse channel; and developing the steering matrix to perform beamforming in the forward channel based on the estimate of the forward channel.