Patent ID: 8687717

Claim:
A method for closed loop beamforming in a wireless communication system, the system comprising a transmitter and a receiver, the method comprising: initiating beamforming on a communication channel between the transmitter and the receiver; monitoring the communication channel; periodically determining a condition of the communication channel; wherein the periodically determining the condition of the communication channel includes implementing a fast link adaption methodology, wherein link quality is measured and used to predict instantaneous link performance and wherein multi-stream data packets are transmitted using beamformed matrices for each subcarrier that will maximize a received signal and will assist in the subsequent equalization at the receiver, wherein the transmission includes a corresponding signal to noise ratio (SNR) that will predict the signal quality of subsequent beamformed packets, wherein the periodically determining the condition of the channel further comprises sounding the communication channel; and controlling the beamforming based on the condition of the communication channel, wherein controlling beamforming further comprises: deactivating the beamforming if a first condition is met; re-sounding the communication channel; updating the beamformed matrices; and activating the beamforming according to the updated beamformed matrices; and wherein the communication channel comprises an modulation and coding scheme (MCS) value and MCS feedback and the first condition comprises is where the MCS value is higher than the MCS feedback.