The link adaptation process for selecting a physical layer mode used on a radio link for transmitting symbols of a message between two stations of a wireless communication system among a set of potential physical layer modes comprises the steps of: --evaluating the current radio link conditions; and switching from a current physical layer mode to another physical layer mode by applying a criteria depending on the evaluated current radio link conditions. The evaluation step of the current radio link conditions comprises the calculation of a received modulation accuracy (RMA) for at least a part of the message, the received modulation accuracy (RMA) being de-fined as the inverse of the expectation of a quadratic error for a predetermined number of symbols between demodulated received symbol values and ideal symbol values and in that the criteria is at least partially dependent on the calculated received modulation accuracy (RMA).