Patent ID: 8615033

Claim:
In a wireless system comprising at least one transceiver configurable for communication over a wireless communication channel, the transceiver comprising a transmitter and a receiver, a method for controlling a transmission rate of the at least one transceiver over the wireless communication channel, the method comprising the steps of: determining a signal quality characteristic corresponding to a signal received at the receiver by measuring a difference between one or more reference constellation points and one or more received constellation points, the signal quality characteristic representing an estimation of signal degradation through the wireless communication channel; and controlling a transmission rate of the transmitter over the wireless communication channel as a function of the signal quality characteristic; wherein the step of controlling the transmission rate over the wireless communication channel comprises: determining lower and upper threshold levels representing reference minimum and maximum signal quality characteristics, respectively, corresponding to the transmission rate; determining whether the determined signal quality characteristic is within the lower and upper threshold levels; maintaining the transmission rate when the determined signal quality characteristic is between the lower and upper threshold levels; and increasing the transmission rate to a given transmission rate when the determined signal quality characteristic is less than a lower threshold level representing a reference minimum signal quality characteristic associated with the given transmission rate.