Selecting modulation and coding level and spatial rate for orthogonal frequency domain modulation systems

A method of selecting operating characteristics of a multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) system, comprising:

• approximating a signaling capacity of a given channel for at least two possible transmission rates of the MIMO system;
• equating the approximated signaling capacity of the given channel to an effective capacity of an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel;
• determining an effective signal-to-noise ratio which, over the AWGN channel, provides the same signaling capacity over the given channel;
• comparing the effective signal-to-noise ratio for each transmission rate of the at least two possible transmission rates with the other transmission rates of the at least two possible transmission;
• and
• selecting the transmission rate with the highest effective signal-to-noise ratio as the transmission scheme for communication over the MIMO system.

A system comprising:

• a multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) base station;
• a MIMO receiver coupled to the base station over a MIMO-OFDM wireless link, the MIMO receiver executing a process configured to:
• select a transmission rate from a selection of at least two transmission rates based on at least a first transmission scheme and a second transmission scheme in the system, and
• select a modulation and coding level within the selected transmission rate, the selected modulation and coding level dictating a minimum probability of data transmission error in the system using the selected transmission rate, wherein the selected transmission rate and selected modulation and coding scheme transmit data within the system at a rate substantially equal to the broadband signaling capacity of the system.