Dynamic Switching Between SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO Transmission

An access point (AP), comprising:

• a memory;
• a transceiver;
• and
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
• receive, by the transceiver, an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard compliant action frame from a station, wherein the IEEE 802.11 standard compliant action frame comprises a IEEE 802.11 standard compliant action field that species a preference request to receive a single-user multiple input multiple output (SU-MIMO) transmission from the AP;
• determine to use the SU-MIMO transmission with the station based at least in part on the IEEE 802.11 standard compliant action frame;
• and
• transmit, by the transceiver, an acknowledgement frame to the station responsive to the determination, wherein the acknowledgement frame indicates that the AP is configured to use the SU-MIMO transmission with the station.

A tangible computer-readable device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising:

• generating an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard compliant action frame, wherein the IEEE 802.11 standard compliant action frame comprises a IEEE 802.11 standard compliant action field that species a preference request to join a multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) transmission from an AP;
• transmitting, by a transceiver, the IEEE 802.11 standard compliant action frame to the AP;
• receiving, by the transceiver, an acknowledgement frame from the AP, wherein the acknowledgement frame indicates that the AP is configured to use the MU-MIMO transmission with the at least one computing device;
• and
• receiving, by the transceiver, data from the AP via the MU-MIMO transmission.