Patent ID: 7477699

Claim:
A method for selecting a multiple input multiple output transmission technique for a radio communication system with multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas, the method comprising: estimating, based upon a first signal to interference and noise ratio determined for at least one tone in a multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas radio channel using a space time coding technique, a first data throughput of the at least one multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas radio channel using the space time coding technique; estimating, based upon a second signal to interference and noise ratio determined for at least one tone in a multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas radio channel using a spatial multiplexing technique, a second data throughput of the at least one multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas radio channel corresponding to using the spatial multiplexing technique, wherein the spatial multiplexing technique communicates a plurality of data stream layers through the at least one multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas radio channel; determining, based upon the first signal to interference and noise ratio and the second signal to interference and noise ratio, that the second data throughput is greater than the first data throughput and that a third data throughput of each layer within the plurality of data stream layers is greater than a threshold; selecting, in response to determining that the second data throughput is greater than the first data throughput and that the third data throughput of each layer within the plurality of data stream layers is greater than a threshold, the spatial multiplexing technique as a selected technique; selecting, in response to determining that at least one of the second data throughput is not greater than the first data throughput and that the third data throughput of at least one layer of data streams based upon the second signal to interference and noise ratio is not greater than the threshold, the space time coding technique as the selected technique; and communicating by a receiver, the selected technique and at least one corresponding channel quality indices to a transmitter.