Patent ID: 8014366

Claim:
A method for communication over a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising: receiving uplink signals from a plurality of stations in the WLAN; placing data packets in respective queues for downlink transmission to the stations; responsively to the uplink signals and to a characteristic of the respective queues, selecting a set of the stations for inclusion in a spatial multiplexing group; and transmitting downlink signals so as to convey the data packets from the respective queues simultaneously to the stations in the set using spatial division multiplexing (SDM), wherein selecting the set of the stations comprises processing the uplink signals to determine respective spatial signatures of the stations, and grouping the stations in the set responsively to the spatial signatures, wherein selecting the set of the stations comprises processing the uplink signals to determine respective spatial signatures of the stations, and grouping the stations in the set responsively to the spatial signatures.