OFDM communication with multi-dimensional rate adaptation

1. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said at least one other parameter comprises one of:

error correction rate, repetition rate, transmission power, modulation type, power amplifier (PA) backoff, number of OFDM sub-channels, sub-carrier repetitions, number of error correction iterations, selection of OFDM sub-carriers to be modulated and method of coding.

2. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said sequence defines a predetermined granularity of said channel quality estimator.

3. A method according to claim 2 , wherein said granularity is 1.0 dB.

4. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said RF channel is line-of-sight.

5. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said RF channel is near line-of-sight.

6. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, further comprising associating each one of said stored parameter vectors with a separate range of said channel quality estimator.

7. A method according to claim 6 , wherein said associating comprises selecting for each of said ranges a parameter vector which maximizes a specified performance measure for said range.

8. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth,

storing said sequence as a table of bandwidths, and

dynamically working through said bandwidths in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said sequence defines a predetermined granularity of said channel quality estimator.

9. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth,

storing said sequence as a table of bandwidths, and

dynamically working through said bandwidths in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said RF channel is line-of-sight.

10. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth,

storing said sequence as a table of bandwidths, and

dynamically working through said bandwidths in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said RF channel is near line-of-sight.

11. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of power amplifier (PA) backoff and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being PA backoff, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said at least one other parameter comprises one of:

error correction rate, repetition rate, transmission power, modulation type, number of OFDM sub-channels, sub-carrier repetitions, number of error correction iterations, selection of OFDM sub-carriers to be modulated, method of coding and bandwidth.

12. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of power amplifier (PA) backoff and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being PA backoff, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said sequence defines a predetermined granularity of said channel quality estimator.

13. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of power amplifier (PA) backoff and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being PA backoff, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said RF channel is line-of-sight.

14. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of power amplifier (PA) backoff and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being PA backoff, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said RF channel is near line-of-sight.

15. A method for performing rate adaptation of microwave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said microwave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor microwave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said at least one other parameter comprises one of:

error correction rate, repetition rate, transmission power, modulation type, power amplifier (PA) backoff, number of OFDM sub-channels, sub-carrier repetitions, number of error correction iterations, selection of OFDM sub-carriers to be modulated and method of coding.

16. A method for performing rate adaptation of microwave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said microwave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor microwave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said sequence defines a predetermined granularity of said channel quality estimator.

17. A method for performing rate adaptation of microwave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said microwave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor microwave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said RF channel is line-of-sight.

18. A method for performing rate adaptation of microwave transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said microwave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor microwave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said RF channel is near line-of-sight.

19. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in an OFDM indoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of a millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said at least one other parameter comprises one of:

error correction rate, repetition rate, transmission power, modulation type, power amplifier (PA) backoff, number of OFDM sub-channels, sub-carrier repetitions,

number of error correction iterations, selection of OFDM sub-carriers to be modulated and method of coding.

20. A method for performing rate adaptation of millimeter wave transmissions in an OFDM indoor system, wherein said millimeter wave transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel, comprising:

receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of a millimeter-wave RF channel;

defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter,

storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters, and

dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator, wherein said sequence defines a predetermined granularity of said channel quality estimator.

21. An apparatus for controlling rate adaptation of transmissions in a substantially line-of-sight OFDM outdoor system, wherein said transmissions are performed over a radio frequency (RF) channel in the mm-wave or microwave frequency band, comprising:

a parameter sequence definer, configured for defining a sequence of parameter changes to dynamically adjust transmission quality for said rate adaptation, said parameters defining said rate adaptation, and comprising dynamic adaptation of bandwidth and at least one other parameter;

a vector database associated with said parameter sequence definer, configured for storing said sequence as a table of vectors, one parameter of said vectors being bandwidth, each vector comprising a combination of parameters;

a parameter vector selector associated with said vector database, configured for receiving a channel quality estimator indicative of a quality of an outdoor millimeter-wave RF channel, for dynamically working through said parameter vectors in said table in response to said channel quality estimator so as to select a parameter vector for modulating an RF carrier; and

a processor configured for operating said parameter sequence definer, said vector database and said parameter vector selector.

22. An apparatus in accordance with claim 21 , wherein said RF channel is line-of-sight.

23. An apparatus in accordance with claim 21 , wherein said RF channel is near line-of-sight.

24. An apparatus in accordance with claim 21 , further comprising an RF modulator configured for OFDM modulating a mm-wave RF carrier in accordance with said selected parameter vector.