Patent ID: 8903329

Claim:
A wireless communications device comprising: a housing; a radio-frequency (RF) transceiver disposed in the housing; a plurality of antennas distributed with respect to the housing; a switch fabric coupled to the RF transceiver and the plurality of antennas, wherein the switch fabric is configured to couple the RF transceiver to one or more of the plurality of antennas; and processing circuitry disposed in the housing and coupled to the RF transceiver and switch fabric, the processing circuitry configured to cause the RF transceiver and switch fabric to execute operations comprising: transmitting an RF reference signal; determining at least one characteristic of the RF reference signal as reflected back from each of the plurality of antennas; processing the at least one determined characteristic in order to select at least two antennas of the plurality of antennas based on the at least one determined characteristic, wherein the at least two antennas are selected for having high return loss, and wherein the processing comprises comparing the at least one determined characteristic of the reflected RF reference signal with that of the transmitted RF reference signal to determine return loss of each of the plurality of antennas; and configuring the switch fabric to couple the selected at least two antennas to the transceiver so that a signal received from the transceiver will be coupled to and transmitted by the at least two antennas at the same time.