Patent ID: 7693224

Claim:
A wireless communication device comprising: a transceiver arranged to receive data from a remote transmitter on a plurality of subcarriers; a channel estimator to measure a power level conveyed by each subcarrier; and a controller coupled to the transceiver and to the channel estimator to quantify the subcarriers exhibiting power levels meeting or exceeding each of a plurality of power thresholds, and to select a modulation criteria for each of the subcarriers based at least in part on the power thresholds, wherein subcarriers having power levels meeting or exceeding a particular threshold are selected to have a same modulation criteria; wherein the controller is configured to track an aggregate power of subcarriers measured over time, wherein when data having a higher bit-error-rate (BER) is to be received and the aggregate power decreases, the controller is configured to decrease the power thresholds to result in an approximately unchanged data rate, and wherein when data having a lower BER is to be received and the aggregate power decreases, the controller is configured to increase the power thresholds to result in a decreased data rate to at least maintain data integrity.