A MIMO channel frequency response matrix is decomposed into a frequency-related part and a constant part. The constant part is independent of subcarrier index and of number of subcarriers in one symbol interval. Separated QR decomposition and either SVD or GMD is applied to the two parts. A right unitary matrix (R) is obtained from the SVD or GMD applied to the constant part. QR decomposition is applied to the constant part to generate a beamforming matrix (V). In another embodiment, a selection criterion based on a correlation matrix distance is used to select a beamforming matrix that is independent of subcarrier, the selected matrix is retrieved from a local memory and applied to a received signal. Noise covariance is computed for a noise expression which considers interference generated from the applied beamforming matrix. Data detection is performed on the received signal by a MIMO data detector using the noise covariance.