A dynamic algorithm to optimize the packet size in wireless mobile networks using Rician distribution estimation (RDE) of the mobility range is presented. The packet size adaptation algorithm is based on an estimation of the bit error rate (BER) and the dynamic link distance statistics to maximize the communication performance through automatic repeat request (ARQ). The results using the dynamically estimated probability density function (PDF) of the link distance show significant improvement in both throughput and utilization when used in rapidly changing mobile environments.