Method and system for analyzing radio performance during over-the-air operation

• US 10,200,902 B2
• Filed: 03/26/2018
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Locus Location Systems, LLC
• Original Assignee: Locus Location Systems, LLC
• Inventors: Rey, Joseph, McCarthy, John, Qahwash, Murad
• Primary Examiner(s): Jia, Xin
• Application Number:
  US15/935,430
• Publication Number:
  US 20180227780A1
• Time in Patent Office: 316 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/17 Detection of non-compliance or faulty performance, e.g. response deviations H04B17/18 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

An apparatus for determining characteristics of a radio within a communications network includes a radio, RF signal sensor, and analyzer. The radio transmits RF signals and has transmission operating parameters with respective predetermined values defined by a regulatory agency, a manufacturer, a user and a provider, the values having respective thresholds, a unique identifier; and an over-the-air operating mode in which the signals comprise the identifier. The sensor receives the signals from the radio having characteristics correlating with the transmission operating parameters. While the signals are being received during the operating mode, the analyzer measures the signal characteristics and determines health of the radio by analyzing whether the measured characteristics transmitted are within the respective thresholds of the values, and concludes that health is acceptable if the measured characteristics are within the thresholds, and concludes that health is unacceptable if at least one measured characteristic is outside a threshold.

Claims

1. An apparatus for determining characteristics of a radio within a communications network, comprising:

at least one radio being mobile or portable and transmitting over-the-air RF signals within the communications network, the at least one radio having;

transmission operating parameters with respective predetermined values defined by at least one of a regulatory agency, a manufacturer of the at least one radio, a user of the communications network and a provider of the communications network, the predetermined values having respective thresholds;

a unique identifier; and

an over-the-air operating mode in which the at least one radio transmits radio frequency (RF) signals within the communications network, the signals comprising at least the unique identifier;

at least one RF signal sensor receiving the RF signals transmitted from the at least one radio in the over-the-air operating mode, the RF signals comprising the unique identifier and having characteristics correlating with the transmission operating parameters;

an analyzer communicatively connected to the at least one RF signal sensor and, while the RF signals are being received during the over-the-air operating mode;

the analyzer is configured to measure the characteristics of the RF signals and determine a health of the at least one radio by analyzing whether the measured characteristics of the RF signals transmitted from the at least one radio are within the respective thresholds of the predetermined values;

the analyzer is configured to conclude that the health of the at least one radio is acceptable if the measured characteristics of the RF signals are within the respective thresholds of the predetermined values; and

the analyzer is configured to conclude that the health of the at least one radio is unacceptable if at least one of the measured characteristics of the RF signals are outside at least one respective threshold of the predetermined values.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analyzer:

at least temporarily stores a health status of the at least one radio; and

utilizes the health status to effect repairs on the at least one radio when the health of the at least one radio is determined to be unacceptable.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analyzer is configured to install a software update in the at least one radio as a repair when the health of the at least one radio is determined to be unacceptable.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the health of the at least one radio is unacceptable, the analyzer is configured:

to flag the at least one radio as suspect if at least one of the measured characteristics of the RF signals is outside a first threshold range of at least one of the predetermined values; and

to flag the at least one radio as failed if at least one of the measured characteristics of the RF signals is outside a second threshold range of at least one of the predetermined values and at least one of;

to indicate to at least one of the user and the provider to remove the at least one radio from service; and

to remove the at least one radio from service.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analyzer is configured to determine the health of the at least one radio at least one of:

with the RF signal sensor; and

separate from the RF signal sensor.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission operating parameters comprise at least one of RF frequency accuracy, RF frequency offset from an assigned frequency, timing of RF frequency offsets relative to a beginning of a message transmission, RF frequency offset variations throughout a message transmission, frequency deviation of the modulated signal, range of frequency deviations over time, amplitude variations during a message transmission, symbol frequency error, symbol clock error, modulation fidelity, bit error rate, conformance to packet structure specifications, baud rate changes during a message transmission, spurious emissions, received signal strength indicator (RSSI), consistent low power level irrespective of location of the at least one radio, high bit error rate irrespective of location of the at least one radio, battery charge, a number of retries over a predetermined threshold, and unexpectedly low RSSI.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the analyzer is configured to determine the health of the at least one radio by analyzing whether the RF frequency offset of the RF signals transmitted from the at least one radio are within an RF frequency offset threshold and, if the measured RF frequency offset of the RF signals is outside the RF frequency offset threshold, to conclude that the health of the at least one radio is unacceptable and to repair the RF frequency offset of the at least one radio with a software update.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analyzer is configured:

to determine the unique identifier within the received RF signals;

to determine if each of the received RF signals conform to packet structure specifications;

to determine bit-field information of the received RF signals and discern from the bit-field information a type of transmission that has been received from the at least one radio;

to measure an RF frequency offset of the at least one radio;

to correlate the bit-field information with the RF frequency offset utilizing the unique identifier; and

to repeatedly carry out the bit-field information determining step, the RF frequency offset measuring step and the correlating step to determine a range of RF frequency offset deviations over time.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the analyzer is configured to utilize the range of RF frequency offset deviations to repair the at least one radio.

10. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein an event is defined when an RF signal from the at least one radio is detected by the RF signal sensor and the analyzer is configured to utilize the range of RF frequency offset deviations to clear the at least one radio of all recorded measured characteristics and events to restart a collection and evaluation process for the at least one radio.

11. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the analyzer is configured to utilize the range of RF frequency offset deviations to generate and send e-mail alerts to at least one of the user and the provider to repair the at least one radio.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communications network is at least one of a trunked radio network and a public safety trunked radio network.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one radio is a plurality of radios.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the RF signal sensor comprises a database and stores the radio identifier of each of the radios in the database, the database comprising:

a list of the unique identifiers for each of the radios to be monitored and each of the radios not to be monitored;

specifications for each of the radios;

desired transmission operating parameters for each of the radios;

specification ranges for each of the radios; and

the measured characteristics of the RF signals received from each of the radios as those RF signals are received.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the RF signal sensor comprises a database and stores information related to the transmission operating parameters in the database, the information comprising at least one of statistics related to the transmission operating parameters for the radios, past repair dates for the radios, identification of those radios for which no operating characteristics have been determined, and user-defined information.

16. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the RF signal sensor is a plurality of receivers and which further comprises:

when an RF signal from the at least one radio is detected by one of the receivers, defined as an event, the one receiver determines and stores for the event;

the unique identifier of the at least one radio;

date and time information; and

the measured characteristics for the at least one radio; and

time-aligns the events with two or more of the receivers.

17. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission operating parameters have respective thresholds for the network provider that are tighter than thresholds defined by at least one of the regulatory agency and the manufacturer of the at least one radio.

18. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the RF signal sensor comprises at least one antenna, a receiver, a digital signal processor, a precision oscillator, and a general purpose processor cooperating together to measure the characteristics of the transmitted RF signals and to compare the characteristics with the transmission operating parameters.

19. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the radio is at least one of a mobile transceiver and a portable transceiver.

20. An apparatus for determining characteristics of a radio within a communications network, comprising:

at least one radio being mobile or portable and transmitting over-the-air RF signals within the communications network, the at least one radio having;

a unique identifier;

an over-the-air operating mode in which the at least one radio transmits radio frequency (RF) signals within the communications network, the signals comprising at least the unique identifier; and

transmission operating parameters with respective predetermined values defined by at least one of a regulatory agency, a manufacturer of the at least one radio, a user of the communications network and a provider of the communications network, the transmission operating parameters comprising RF frequency offset, the predetermined values having respective thresholds comprising at least an RF frequency offset threshold;

at least one RF signal sensor receiving the RF signals transmitted from the at least one radio, the RF signals comprising the unique identifier and having characteristics correlating with the transmission operating parameters; and

an analyzer communicatively connected to the at least one RF signal sensor and;

measuring the characteristics of the RF signals while the RF signals are being received during the over-the-air operating mode and determining a health of the at least one radio by analyzing whether the measured RF frequency offset of the RF signals transmitted from the at least one radio are within the RF frequency offset threshold; and

if the measured RF frequency offset of the RF signals is outside the RF frequency offset threshold, scheduling a repair of the RF frequency offset of the at least one radio with a software update.

21. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the analyzer is configured to install the software update in the at least one radio as the repair when the measured RF frequency offset of the RF signals is outside the RF frequency offset threshold.

22. An apparatus for determining characteristics of a radio within a communications network, comprising:

at least one radio being mobile or portable and transmitting over-the-air RF signals within the communications network, the at least one radio having;

transmission operating parameters with respective predetermined values defined by at least one of a regulatory agency, a manufacturer of the at least one radio, a user of the communications network and a provider of the communications network, the predetermined values having respective thresholds;

a unique identifier; and

an over-the-air operating mode in which the at least one radio transmits radio frequency (RF) signals within the communications network, the signals comprising at least the unique identifier;

at least one RF signal sensor receiving the RF signals transmitted from the at least one radio in the over-the-air operating mode, the RF signals comprising the unique identifier and having characteristics correlating with the transmission operating parameters;

an analyzer communicatively connected to the at least one RF signal sensor and, while the RF signals are being received during the over-the-air operating mode;

the analyzer is configured to measure the characteristics of the RF signals and determine a health of the at least one radio by analyzing whether the measured characteristics of the RF signals transmitted from the at least one radio are within the respective thresholds of the predetermined values;

the analyzer is configured to conclude that the health of the at least one radio is acceptable if the measured characteristics of the RF signals are within the respective thresholds of the predetermined values; and

the analyzer is configured to conclude that the health of the at least one radio is unacceptable if at least one of the measured characteristics of the RF signals are outside at least one respective threshold of the predetermined values and to schedule a repair of the at least one of the operating parameters of the at least one radio with a software update based upon at least one of the measured characteristics of the RF signals that is outside a respective threshold of the predetermined values.

23. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the analyzer is configured to install the software update in the at least one radio as the repair when the health of the at least one radio is determined to be unacceptable.