Identifying correlations within wireless networks

• US 20080247327A1
• Filed: 07/26/2007
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Energy Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Tropos Networks Incorporated (ABB Limited)
• Inventors: Gupta, Mukesh, Behroozi, Cyrus, Srikrishna, Devabhaktuni, Saha, Amit, Weil, Kevin
• Granted Patent: US 8,750,806 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them

Abstract

Methods of correlating wireless network performance of a wireless network are disclosed. One method includes collecting wireless network performance parameters at a location of the network, observing at least one of activities and conditions of the wireless network over the period of time, and correlating the wireless network performance parameters with at least one of the activities and conditions of the wireless network. The wireless network performance parameters can be collected by one or more test devices operating at nodes or clients within the wireless network.

Claims

1. A method of correlating wireless network performance of a wireless network, comprising:

collecting wireless network performance parameters at a location of the network;

observing at least one of activities and conditions of the wireless network;

correlating the wireless network performance parameters with at least one of the activities and conditions of the wireless network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless network performance parameters are collected over at least a predetermined period of time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless network performance parameters are collected in real-time.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising a test device operating as a client device collecting the wireless network performance parameters.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising a test device operating as a wireless network node collecting the wireless network performance parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless network performance parameters comprise at least one of receive signal strength, receive signal SNR, transmission retries, upstream data throughput, downstream data throughput, upstream latency, downstream latency, and available air-time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the conditions comprise at least one of a upstream latency, downstream latency, upstream throughput, downstream throughput, a number of packet retries, packet success probability, reverse packet success probability, and antenna asymmetry of at least one of the first plurality of wireless hops.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the activities comprise at least one of routing selections, channel selections.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting wireless network performance parameters at a plurality of locations of the wireless network over at least a period of time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising alerting at least one device within the wireless network of at least one observed correlation.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying operation of at least one device within the wireless network based on at least one observed correlation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein modifying the operation comprises at least one of influencing routing selection of the device, influencing transmission channel selection of the device, disassociating at least one client.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising the other wireless device modifying wireless network characteristics to mitigate problems detected by the collected wireless network performance parameters.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the wireless network characteristic comprises at least one of routing selection, transmission channel selection, transmission power, transmission bit rate, packet QoS, dis-associating a client.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein correlating the wireless network performance parameters with the activities and conditions of the wireless network comprises correlating wireless network performance with at least one of high data traffic of an upstream node, low available air-time of an upstream node, a large number of client devices associated with an upstream node, low transmission power of an upstream node, a high-interference channel selection of an upstream node.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein correlating the wireless network performance parameters with the activities of the wireless network comprises correlating wireless network performance with at least one of a routing path selection of an upstream node, a channel selection of an upstream node, a transmission power selection of an upstream node.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein correlating the wireless network performance parameters with the conditions of the wireless network comprises a test device detecting a reduction in throughput, correlating the reduction in throughput with a high traffic condition of an upstream device, alleviating the reduction in throughput caused by the upstream device by at least one of selecting a new transmission channel, activating a RTS (request to send)/CTS (clear to send) mode of the upstream device, and selecting a new routing path.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein correlating the wireless network performance parameters with the conditions of the wireless network comprises a test device detecting a reduction in reverse packet success probability (RPSP), correlating the reduction in RPSP with at least one of upstream device packet collisions and high traffic condition of an upstream device, alleviating the reduction in RPSP by the upstream device by at least one of selecting a new transmission channel, activating of a RTS (request to send)/CTS (clear to send) mode of the upstream device, and selecting a new routing path.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein correlating the wireless network performance parameters with the activities and conditions of the wireless network comprises a test device detecting at least one of a reduction in available air-time and an increase in latency, correlating the at least one of a reduction in available air-time and an increase in latency with at least one of upstream device packet collisions and high traffic condition of an upstream device, alleviating the at least one of a reduction in available air-time and an increase in latency by the upstream device at least one of selecting a new transmission channel, activating a RTS (request to send)/CTS (clear to send) mode of the upstream device, and selecting a new routing path.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising correlating wireless network performance parameters with previously collected wireless network performance parameters.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein a network management server collects the wireless network performance parameters and observes the activities and conditions, and performs the correlations.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein a network device collects the wireless network performance parameters, observes the activities and conditions, and performs the correlations.

23. A wireless network comprising a system for correlating wireless network performance of the wireless network, comprising:

a test device collecting wireless network performance parameters at a location of the network over at least a period of time;

at least one device of the wireless network observing activities and conditions of the wireless network over the period of time;

correlating the wireless network performance parameters with the activities and conditions of the wireless network.