Patent ID: 7212542

Claim:
A method in a wireless data communication system that sends data from a first transceiver to a second transceiver at a data rate through a plurality of sub-carriers at once, the method for maximizing the data rate without requiring the second transceiver to measure and communicate a signal quality estimate (SQE) for each of the plurality of sub-carriers, the method comprising in the first transceiver: sending a predetermined number of blocks of data to the second transceiver; recording on which of the plurality of sub-carriers each of the blocks of data is sent; receiving from the second transceiver a list of the blocks of data that were received with errors; calculating from said list a plurality of error rates corresponding to the plurality of sub-carriers; determining the SQE for each of the plurality of sub-carriers from the plurality of error rates; and adjusting the data rate in accordance with the SQE determined for each of the plurality of sub-carriers.