In a communication device compatible with either a SISO or MIMO access point, a set of antennas is configured as either sector-directional or omni-directional, depending upon whether the communication channel is characterized by the communication device as either strongly line of sight, or strongly scattering, respectively. In some embodiments, for the case in which a MIMO access point is utilized, the singular values of an estimated channel matrix are generated, and based upon the singular values, the characteristics of the communication channel is estimated. Other embodiments are described and claimed.