WiFi antenna selection with beamforming

A method, comprising:

• identifying a first number of antennas to test;
• identifying a second number of receive and transmit chains that are available to couple to the antennas, wherein the first number of antennas to test is greater than the second number of receive and transmit chains;
• determining a third number of possible combinations that the receive and transmit chains may couple to the antennas;
• generating a set of antenna mapping matrices, the number of antenna mapping matrices in the set of antenna mapping matrices being equal to the third number of possible combinations, each antenna mapping matrix in the set of antenna mapping matrices having a number of rows equal to a number of antennas, wherein the antenna mapping matrix identifies a number of antenna that is greater than a number of transmit chains;
• generating, based on the set of antenna mapping matrices, a multi-tone sounding signal to test the possible combinations;
• receiving sounding feedback;
• determining a performance for each of the possible combinations based on the sounding feedback, wherein a particular combination has a highest ranked performance;
• switchably coupling the at least one receive and transmit chain to an antenna that is associated with the particular combination with the highest ranked performance for transmission of subsequent data communication packets;
• varying a center frequency of the multi-tone sounding signal for the sounding;
• and
• setting a frequency for the particular combination with the highest ranked performance.

A very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit to couple between transmit chains of a wireless orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) transceiver and an array of antennas greater in number than a number of the transmit chains, and the VLSI circuit comprising:

• a beamform antenna selection circuit coupled to the transmit chains, the beamform antenna selection circuit to:
• determine a number of possible combinations that the transmit chains may couple to the array of antennas;
• generate a set of antenna mapping matrices, the number of antenna mapping matrices in the set of antenna mapping matrices being equal to the number of possible combinations, each antenna mapping matrix in the set of antenna mapping matrices having a number of rows equal to a number of antennas in the array of antennas;
• generate, based on the set of antenna mapping matrices, a sounding packet to test the possible combinations;
• receive sounding feedback;
• determine a performance for each of the possible combinations based on the sounding feedback, wherein a particular combination has a highest ranked performance;
• and
• switchably couple the transmit chain to an antenna of the array of antennas that is associated with the particular combination with the highest ranked performance for transmission of subsequent data communication packets;
• and
• a center frequency shifter circuit to:
• vary a center frequency of the multi-tone sounding signal for the sounding;
• and
• set a frequency for the particular combination with the highest ranked performance.