Transmission mode selection

1. A method for selecting a downlink transmission mode, the method comprising:

determining that a first wireless device out of a plurality of wireless devices connected to an access node qualifies for a beamforming transmission mode;

determining that a pair of wireless devices out of the plurality of wireless devices qualifies for a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission mode;

comparing a first total throughput of the access node using the beamforming transmission mode with a second total throughput of the access node using the MU-MIMO transmission mode; and

selecting the downlink transmission mode from the first total throughput and the second total throughput that has a highest total throughput.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising comparing the first total throughput and second total throughput with a third total throughput of the access node using neither the beamforming nor the MU-MIMO transmission mode; and selecting neither transmission mode upon the third total throughput being higher than the first and second total throughputs.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising predicting the first and second total throughputs prior to the comparing.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising individually implementing each transmission mode and determining the first and second throughputs prior to the comparing.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the first wireless device qualifies for the beamforming transmission mode based on a sounding reference signal transmitted from the first wireless device.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising determining one or more of an angle of arrival and a distance based on the sounding reference signal.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the pair of wireless devices qualifies for the MU-MIMO transmission mode based on a channel orthogonality of the pair of wireless devices meeting a first threshold.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining that the pair of wireless devices qualifies for the MU-MIMO transmission mode based on a signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SINR) of each of the pair of wireless devices meeting a second threshold.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating the method upon expiration of a timer.

10. A system for selecting a downlink transmission mode, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory to store computer-readable instructions that are executed by the processor to perform operations comprising:

upon a first wireless device qualifying for a beamforming transmission mode from an access node, and a pair of wireless devices qualifying for a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission mode from the access node, determining a first sector efficiency of the access node using the beamforming transmission mode and a second sector efficiency of the access node using the MU-MIMO transmission mode;

comparing each of the first and second sector efficiencies with a third sector efficiency of the access node using a standard transmission mode; and

implementing the downlink transmission mode with a highest sector efficiency from among the first, second, and third sector efficiencies.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first, second, and third sector efficiencies are predicted based on a known signal criteria for each wireless device.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the known signal criteria comprise one or more of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) or a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) for each wireless device.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein each of the first, second, and third sector efficiencies is based on a corresponding first, second, and third throughput of the access node.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise implementing the beamforming transmission mode, and determining the first sector efficiency based on a first throughput of the access node using the beamforming transmission mode.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise implementing the MU-MIMO transmission mode, and determining the second sector efficiency based on a second throughput of the access node using the MU-MIMO transmission mode.

16. A processing node for selecting a downlink transmission mode, the processing node comprising: a memory coupled with a processor, wherein the processor is configured to:

determining that a first wireless device connected to an access node qualifies for a beamforming transmission mode and a pair of wireless devices connected to the access node qualifies for a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission mode, wherein the pair of wireless devices comprises a second wireless device and a third wireless device;

determining a first total throughput of the access node for the beamforming transmission mode, a second total throughput of the access node for the MU-M IMO transmission mode, and a third total throughput of the access node for a standard transmission mode, wherein in the standard transmission mode the access node uses neither the beamforming nor the MU-M IMO transmission modes; implementing the downlink transmission mode from the first, second, and third total throughputs with a highest total throughput; and upon expiration of a timer, repeating the method.

17. The processing node of claim 16 , wherein the timer comprises a transmission time interval (TTI).

18. The processing node of claim 16 , wherein the timer has a duration of 1 ms.

19. The processing node of claim 16 , wherein the timer has an interval of 1 s.

20. The processing node of claim 16 , wherein each transmission mode is a downlink transmission mode.