Patent ID: 7058367

Claim:
A rate-adaptive method of communicating over a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system including a first station having multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas and a second station having multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas, the method comprising steps of: (a) transmitting a signal in a first frame from the first station to the second station using one of a single transmit antenna of the first station and multiple transmit antennas of the first station with transmission diversity; (b) receiving a second frame from the second station at the first station, the second frame including an indication that at least one additional signal should be transmitted in the third frame; (c) transmitting a predetermined number of signals in the third frame from the first station to the second station when the second frame includes the automatic retransmission request instruction, the predetermined number of signals being transmitted using a corresponding predetermined number of transmit antennas of the first station, the predetermined number of signals being based on the indication received from the second station that at least one additional signal should be transmitted in the third frame; (d) receiving a fourth frame from the second station at the first station, the fourth frame including an indication of a number of signals that should be transmitted from the first station to the second station in a fifth frame in a control sequence of the fourth frame; and (e) repeating each step continuously from step (b) when a number of transmitted signals in the frame transmitted from the first station to the second station is one; otherwise repeating each step continuously from step (c).