Patent ID: 7561632

Claim:
In a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system including a source device that transmits, via a number N t of transmit antennas, a beamformed signal to a sink device, a beamforming method for the source device, the method comprising: employing a processor executing computer readable instructions to perform the following acts: determining a set of beamforming weights to be applied to a number N ss of signal streams to generate a number N t of transmit streams, wherein the number N ss is at least two, wherein the act of determining includes: computing a singular value decomposition of a channel matrix H associated with a communication channel from the source device to the sink device; defining a preliminary weight matrix based on the singular value decomposition; and phase-rotating each column of the preliminary weight matrix such that a phase of a reference element in each column is equal to a target phase, thereby generating the set of beamforming weights; applying the set of beamforming weights to the number N ss of signal streams to generate the number N t of transmit streams; and transmitting the number N t of transmit streams via the number N t of transmit antennas.