DYNAMIC CHAIN CONFIGURATION SELECTION

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A wireless device (e.g., an access point or a station) capable of supporting multiple chain configuration modes may dynamically select a chain configuration mode via channel analysis and energy efficiency analysis. A wireless device may monitor traffic on a wireless channel using a first chain configuration mode. The wireless device may determine an energy value associated with monitoring the traffic using the first (e.g., single) chain configuration, and further determine or infer an energy value associated with monitoring the traffic using a second (e.g., multi) chain configuration. The wireless device may perform a channel metric computation on the traffic (e.g., perform a QR decomposition of a channel matrix associated with the monitored traffic). The wireless device may then switch or select a chain configuration mode for operation based on a comparison between the determined energy values and the channel metric computation.