Patent ID: 6917821

Claim:
A method of controlling data transmission in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system, comprising: evaluating an ordering for recovering a plurality of symbol streams transmitted from a plurality of transmit antennas, using successive interference cancellation (SIC) receiver processing, to obtain a plurality of post-detection signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for the plurality of transmit antennas for the ordering; determining a data rate for each of the plurality of transmit antennas based on the post-detection SNR for the transmit antenna, wherein the data rate for each transmit antenna is set to zero if the post-detection SNR for the transmit antenna is worse than a minimum required SNR, and wherein a plurality of data rates are determined for the plurality of transmit antennas for the ordering; computing an overall data rate for the ordering based on the plurality of data rates for the plurality of transmit antennas; repeating the evaluating, determining, and computing for each of a plurality of orderings; and selecting one of the plurality of orderings based on overall data rates for the plurality of orderings, wherein a plurality of symbol streams are sent from the plurality of transmit antennas at the plurality of data rates for the selected ordering, and wherein the plurality of symbol streams are recovered at a receiver in accordance with the selected ordering.