Patent ID: 7299011

Claim:
Link adaptation process for selecting a physical layer mode used on a radio link for transmitting symbols of a message between two stations of a wireless communication system among a set of potential physical layer modes, the radio link being a-priori unknown and being able to match several profiles of fading channels, comprising: evaluating the current radio link conditions; and switching from a current physical layer mode to another physical layer mode by applying a criteria depending on the evaluated current radio link conditions, wherein said evaluating comprises the calculation of a received modulation accuracy (RMA) for at least a part of the message, where the received modulation accuracy (RMA) is defined as the inverse of the expectation of a quadratic error for a predetermined number of symbols between equalized demodulated received symbol values and ideal symbol values and the applying a criteria is at least partially dependent on the calculated received modulation accuracy (RMA) and the criteria for switching from the current physical layer mode follows an analysis that is independent from an a-priori knowledge of fading channel coefficients.