Patent ID: 7167690

Claim:
A radio communication system having a communication channel comprising a plurality of paths between a transmitter having a plurality of antennas and a receiver having at least one antenna, wherein the transmitter comprises: path characterization means for determining at least one transmission property of each path of said plurality of paths, data categorization means for determining and assigning a data quality category to a set of data for transmission, said data categorization means being adapted to assign different categories to different segments of the set of data from an application; and mapping means responsive to said path characterization means and said data categorization means for determining a mapping to apply the set of data to the transmitter's plurality of antennas such that the set of data is transmitted over a path or paths in which the determined data quality of the set of data corresponds to the at least one transmission property of the path or paths, thereby determining over which path or paths the set of data will be transmitted.