Where communications are from one source to more than one target concurrently, and where further the data for each target is discrete from that destined for other targets, the communication is identified as multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication. This communication capability requires complex signal processing and multiple antennas on at least the transmitting device, e.g. the wireless access point (WAP). MU-MIMO capability was first introduced into the IEEE 802.11 specification in the “ac” standard and is intended to increase WAP throughput by allowing the MIMO capabilities of the WAP to be exploited efficiently by downlinking the WAP to multiple stations at once via an MU-MIMO downlink communication packet having a payload portion containing discrete individual communication packets for each of the targeted stations in the MU-MIMO group. The complex signal processing required to support this capability provides spatial separation of each downlink packet transmitted by the WAP so that the discrete payload portions of each packet arrive at each targeted station in the MU-MIMO group without interference from the portion of each packet destined for others of the stations in the MU-MIMO group. A precode matrix input to a spatial mapper achieves this outcome. The precode matrix itself requires frequent interruptions of the MU-MIMO downlink communications, in order for each station in the group to be explicitly sounded, and further to provide feedback to the WAP as to the communication channel determined by each station in response to the explicit sounding. Typically an MU-MIMO downlink will required ten or more explicit soundings per second, i.e. at least 1 explicit sounding every 100 ms. MU-MIMO is particularly appropriate or effective when the stations chosen for a MU-MIMO group have capabilities and corresponding data consumption requirements which do not individually present a burden to the WAP. A typical MU-MIMO target station group would have a fraction of the antennas of the WAP and relatively low individual data consumption requirements.