Patent ID: 8861499

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: circuitry configured to control a transmission of a first signal wirelessly to a wireless communication device in accordance with a first transmit mode that is selected from a plurality of transmit modes; circuitry configured to receive a shortlist from the wireless communication device, the shortlist identifying a subset of the transmit modes, the subset of the transmit modes including two or more modes that are different from the first transmit mode, wherein the wireless communication device is configured to generate the shortlist based on a channel quality analysis of a received version of the first signal; and circuitry configured to select a second transmit mode from the shortlist for a transmission of a second signal, and selectively cycle through any remaining modes of the shortlist based on a lack of reception of an acknowledgement to the second signal, wherein the circuitry configured to control the transmission is configured to control a transmission of the second signal wirelessly to the wireless communication device in accordance with the second transmit mode or one of the remaining modes.