Patent ID: 7468962

Claim:
A method for selecting a channel from a plurality of channels to use for receiving a transmission, each channel having a plurality of subcarriers for receiving symbols, the symbols comprising a plurality of data bits, the method comprising the acts of: for each of the plurality of channels, performing the acts of: determining a channel response estimate for each of the plurality of subcarriers; assigning a subcarrier metric to each subcarrier based on the channel response estimate for that subcarrier; mapping the subcarrier metric to each of the plurality of data bits; creating channel response data comprising the metrics assigned to each of the plurality of data bits for each subcarrier; determining an intermediate channel quality metric (CQM) for each group of N bits of the channel response data by determining which group of N bits corresponds to the weakest corresponding channel response estimate, where N is an integer; and selecting the intermediate channel quality metric corresponding to the weakest channel response estimate as the overall channel quality metric for the channel; and selecting the channel having the highest overall channel quality metric for receiving the transmission.