A method for controlling a transmission rate of at least one transceiver, the transceiver including a transmitter and a receiver, includes: determining a signal quality characteristic corresponding to a signal received at the receiver by measuring a difference between one or more reference constellation points and one or more received constellation points, and modifying a transmission rate of the transmitter over a wireless communication channel as a function of the signal quality characteristic. The step of modifying the transmission rate over the wireless communication channel includes: determining lower and upper threshold levels representing reference minimum and maximum signal quality characteristics, respectively, corresponding to the transmission rate; maintaining the transmission rate when the measured signal quality characteristic is between the lower and upper threshold levels; and increasing the transmission rate when the signal quality characteristic is less than one or more lower threshold levels associated with one or more corresponding higher transmission rates.