Patent ID: 8457152

Claim:
A wireless communication device comprising: a plurality of encoders each configured to receive and encode a different one of a plurality of data segments to generate an encoded data segment; wherein each of the plurality of encoders is configured to encode the respective data segment that the encoder receives at a same rate for simultaneously encoded data segments; a plurality of modulators each configured to receive and modulate a different one of the plurality of encoded data segments to generate a modulated data segment according to a modulation technique, wherein at least two of the plurality of modulators utilize different modulation techniques for simultaneously modulated data segments; and a plurality of transmitters each configured to receive and process a different one of the modulated data segments and to deliver the processed data segment to a different one of a plurality of associated transmit antennas for transmission, wherein a first subset of the plurality of data segments that are received and encoded is associated with a first data stream and a second subset of the plurality of data segments that are received and encoded is associated with a second data stream, the first data stream being different from the second data stream, and wherein for streams delivered to subchannels of the wireless communication device, the modulators are configured to select appropriate modulation sizes to accommodate information rates I 1 . . . I m , corresponding to signal-to-noise ratios of the subchannels, wherein m is the number of the plurality of encoders, the plurality of data segments or the plurality of modulators, respectively, and for the information rates I 1 . . . I m and an actual number of bits per symbol n 1 . . . n m , the encoders are configured to use a single coding rate R, where R =R 1 =. . . =Rm and is defined as follows: R ≤ ∑ k = 1 m ⁢ ⁢ I k / ∑ k = 1 m ⁢ ⁢ n k .