1. A method for improving communications in a multiple input, multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system, comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of symbols from a plurality of sub-carriers at a receiver; selecting a plurality of indices of codewords corresponding to a codebook of pre-coding weighting matrices for the sub-carriers based on vector quantization compression of the codewords; and transmitting the selected indices over a wireless channel to a transmitter, wherein the transmitter is adapted to adjust future transmissions based upon the selected indices to improve communications between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the step of selecting a plurality of indices based on vector quantization compression of the codewords further includes the step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding, including selecting optimal precoding matrices T i along a trellis for all possible paths at the same time for a predetermined number of subcarriers, N c , each subcarrier having a designation p, p=0 to p=N c −1.