Patent ID: 7346364

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a signal from a remote wireless entity; first determining a data rate and a receive power of said received signal; second determining a receiver sensitivity at said data rate; calculating a link margin using said receiver sensitivity and said receive power; when said calculated link margin is within a first range, selecting a first transmit data rate for use in transmitting data to said remote wireless entity; when said calculated link margin is within a second range, selecting a second transmit data rate for use in transmitting data to said remote wireless entity, said second transmit data rate being different from said first transmit data rate; and when said calculated link margin is greater than a threshold value: selecting a third transmit data rate for use in transmitting data to said remote wireless entity, said third transmit data rate being different from said first and second transmit data rates; reducing a transmit power level for use in transmitting data to said remote wireless entity by a first amount to form a reduced transmit power level; transmitting a signal to said remote wireless entity at said reduced transmit power level and said third transmit data rate; third determining whether an acknowledgement signal has been received from said remote wireless entity in response to said transmitted signal; and when an acknowledgement signal has been received in response to said transmitted signal, repeating reducing, transmitting, and third determining until an acknowledgement signal is not received in response to a transmitted signal; wherein said threshold value is greater than an upper limit of said first range and an upper limit of said second range.