The purpose of hybrid spatial mapping using a mix of explicit sounding and crosstalk tracking is to reduce the protocol overhead that is associated with sounding. Sending such crosstalk feedback in the ubiquitous “ACK” packets is one way of achieving this objective. Additionally, the feedback format for the extra information should be kept sufficiently small. Since we expect the numbers to be typically small, the number of bits required to communicate the information may be limited. In addition, further reduction may be obtained by grouping tones. The analysis presented here applies to a single tone. In an OFDM system, the method can be applied to each tone individually. We have to be mindful of the fact that from one transmission to the next, the tones could show a phase shift if e.g. symbol alignment is not exactly the same. The feedback protocol needs a way to encode information in a way that allows the AP to normalize the received information back to a reference phase. The analysis presented here uses full channel “H” information. To keep MU-precoding up to date under changing channel conditions, the precoding matrices need to be kept sufficiently up to date. One approach is to regularly sound the channel to refresh the channel information and the precoding matrices derived from it. This can be done autonomously by the WAP, or the WAP can receive supporting information from the respective receivers that can help its decision in when to refresh the channel information. Information provided by the receivers can be based on reported crosstalk/interference measurements.
In another embodiment of the invention the crosstalk feedback is used to directly update the precoding coefficient without explicit sounding information. The updates are applied as successive corrections to the precoding matrix. The updates are a function of crosstalk/interference channel measurements as observed at the various receivers.