Patent ID: 8144798

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a baseband processing module that is operative to: generate a plurality of preambles to be transmitted respectively via a plurality of antennae, each respective preamble of the plurality of preambles includes a respective first channel sounding at a legacy transmit rate and a respective plurality of channel soundings at a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmit rate; and weight each respective first channel sounding at the legacy transmit rate and each respective channel sounding of the plurality of channel soundings at the MIMO transmit rate by a respective weighting factor corresponding to that respective channel sounding's number and a respective antenna on which that respective preamble is transmitted thereby generating a plurality of outbound symbol streams; and a plurality of radio frequency (RF) transmitters that is operative to process the plurality of outbound symbol streams thereby generating a plurality of RF signals; and wherein: the plurality of antennae respectively transmits the plurality of RF signals via a communication channel.