Selecting a transmission mode between a subscriber and a base station

1. A method for selecting a transmission mode between a mobile subscriber device and a base station, comprising:

determining a predictive window;

averaging channel quality measurements, wherein the averaging is dependent upon a size of the predictive window;

determining a first estimate of the transmission mode;

calculating a margin based on reception of a qualifying downlink transmission;

increasing the margin upon an inference that the qualifying downlink transmission is incorrectly received and a determination that a burst that is scheduled by the base station includes a lower or equal spectral efficiency than a spectral efficiency of a set of N most recently selected transmission modes where N is a positive integer greater than 1; and

selecting the transmission mode by updating the first estimate of the transmission mode with the margin.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a predictive window comprises selecting the predictive window based on an estimation of a frequency of variations in a downlink channel between the mobile subscriber device and the base station.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the predictive window comprises monitoring how frequently the base station requests feedback of a downlink channel between the mobile subscriber device and the base station.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a number of instantaneous channel quality measurements that are averaged is dependent upon the size of the predictive window.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the qualifying downlink transmission comprises a burst.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a desired quality of service (QoS) is used for determination of whether a downlink transmission is designated as a qualified downlink transmission.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein determination of whether a downlink transmission is designated as a qualified downlink transmission comprises matching a connection identifier of the downlink transmission with a connection identifier of a particular QoS profile which a user of the subscriber is expecting.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a desired quality of service (QoS) is used for determination of the margin.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a first estimate of the transmission mode includes accessing a look up table based on the averaged channel quality measurements.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the look up table is selected based on one or more of an expected wireless environment, a data type being communicated, or a desired quality of service for transmission data.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a first estimate of the transmission mode includes algorithmically selecting the first estimate of the transmission mode.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the qualifying downlink transmission includes forward error correction (FEC) blocks that include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC).

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the qualifying downlink transmission can be inferred to be incorrectly received if the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is unsuccessfully received or a confidence level of an output of a block FEC decoder is below a threshold.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the margin decays over time if no qualifying downlink transmissions are scheduled by the base station.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the predictive window includes a number of transmission frames that depend on the mobility of the mobile subscriber device.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the predictive window comprises the base station determining the predictive window.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the predictive window comprises the mobile subscriber device determining the predictive window.

18. A mobile subscriber device, comprising:

a radio frequency front end processor;

a baseband processor that exchanges signals with the radio frequency front end processor, wherein the baseband processor includes:

a modulator/demodulator for modulating and demodulating transmissions;

a mode selector; and

a qualified downlink transmission identifier, wherein the mode selector and the qualified downlink transmission identifier are configured to:

determine a predictive window;

determine a first estimate of a transmission mode based on averaged channel quality measurements, which are dependent upon a size of the predictive window;

calculate a margin based on reception of a qualifying downlink transmission;

increase the margin upon an inference that the qualifying downlink transmission is incorrectly received and a determination that a burst that is scheduled by the base station includes a lower or equal spectral efficiency than a spectral efficiency of a set of N most recently selected transmission modes, where N is a positive integer greater than 1; and

select the transmission mode between the mobile subscriber device and a base station by updating the first estimate with the margin.

19. A method for selecting a transmission mode between a mobile subscriber device and a base station, comprising:

determining a predictive window;

averaging channel quality measurements, wherein the averaging is dependent upon a size of the predictive window;

determining a first estimate of the transmission mode;

calculating a margin based on reception of a qualifying downlink transmission;

decreasing the margin upon an inference that the qualifying downlink transmission is correctly received and a determination that a burst that is scheduled by the base station includes a higher or equal spectral efficiency than a spectral efficiency of a set of N most recently selected transmission modes, where N is a positive integer greater than 1; and

selecting the transmission mode by updating the first estimate of the transmission mode with the margin.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein determining a predictive window comprises selecting the predictive window based on an estimation of a frequency of variations in a downlink channel between the mobile subscriber device and the base station.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein determining the predictive window comprises monitoring how frequently the base station requests feedback of a downlink channel between the mobile subscriber device and the base station.

22. The method of claim 19 , wherein a number of channel quality measurements that are averaged is dependent upon the size of the predictive window.

23. The method of claim 19 , wherein determining a first estimate of the transmission mode includes accessing a look up table based on the averaged channel quality measurements.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the look up table is selected based or one or more of an expected wireless environment, a data type being communicated, or a desired quality of service for transmission data.

25. The method of claim 19 , wherein the qualifying downlink transmission comprises a burst.

26. The method of claim 19 , wherein the qualifying downlink transmission includes forward error correction (FEC) blocks that include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC).

27. The method of claim 26 , wherein the qualifying downlink transmission can be inferred to be correctly received if the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is successfully received or a confidence level of an output of a block FEC decoder is above a threshold.

28. The method of claim 19 , wherein determining the predictive window includes a number of transmission frames that depend on the mobility of the mobile subscriber device.