MOBILE DEVICE DATA COLLECTION FOR USE IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION NETWORK IMPROVEMENTS

• US 20110039571A1
• Filed: 08/12/2009
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Bodine, Tracy John, Wohld, Adam Harold
• Granted Patent: US 8,406,784 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

Capabilities of mobile stations are leveraged to measure operational characteristics of a mobile communications network and capture data regarding those measurements. Information related to where the measurements occurred is also captured. The captured measurement data and the location information are forward to a server for processing. The results of the processing are used to improve the performance of the mobile communications network.

Claims

1. A method of improving the performance of a mobile communications network, the method comprising steps of:

operating a plurality of mobile stations over time to take a plurality of measurements of one or more operational characteristics of the mobile communications network;

storing the measurements of one or more operational characteristics of the mobile communications network and location information related to where the measurements were taken in memories of the respective mobile stations;

communicating, from at least some of the plurality of mobile stations, the stored measurements location information to a network element of the wireless communications network;

processing the measurements location information by the network element; and

generating, in response to the processing, a recommendation for a change to one or more network elements to improve the performance of the mobile communications network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating the stored measurements comprises communicating the stored measurements to the network element of the wireless communication network during a specified time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating the stored measurements comprises communicating the stored measurements via a short messaging service message to the network element of the wireless communications network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating the stored measurements comprises communicating the stored measurements via a short messaging service message to the network element of the wireless communications network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating the recommendation for change comprises suggesting one or more improved parameters of a base station of the mobile communications network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more improved parameters of the base station comprises at least one antenna parameter selected from the group consisting of:

antenna height, antenna tilt, azimuth swing, and a power parameter.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing the measurements comprises calculating the energy per chip for an antenna of the mobile communications network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of taking the measurements of the one or more operational characteristics comprises measuring one or more operational characteristics of the mobile communication network selected from the group consisting of:

an event code, satellite count, receive power, transmit power, channel, messaging, time, and location information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of taking the measurements of the one or more operational characteristics comprises taking the measurements in response to a wireless communications network event.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of taking the measurements of the one or more operational characteristics comprises, taking the measurements at a periodic interval during the operation of the mobile station.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of taking the measurements of the one or more operational characteristics comprises taking the measurements in response to receiving a request from a network element.

12. A mobile communications network, comprising:

a traffic network configured to support communications;

mobile stations in communication with the traffic network, each respective one of a plurality of the mobile stations being configured to;

take measurements of one or more operational characteristics of the mobile communications network;

store the measurements of one or more operational characteristics of the mobile communications network and location information related to where the one or more measurements were taken in a memory of the respective mobile station; and

communicate the stored measurements and location information to a network element of the wireless communications network; and

a server in communication with the traffic network, the server receiving the communicated measurements and location information from the plurality of mobile stations and processing the received measurements and location information to generate a recommendation for a change to one or more network elements to improve the performance of the mobile communications network.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of mobile stations are configured to communicate the stored measurements during a specified time.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of mobile stations are configured to communicate the stored measurements via short messaging service message.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of mobile stations are configured to communicate the stored measurements via a data service of the mobile communications network.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the server processes the received measurements to generate a suggested change to one or more parameters of a base station of the mobile communications network.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more parameters of the base station comprise at lest one antenna parameter selected from the group consisting of:

antenna height, antenna tilt, azimuth swing, and a power parameter.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the server processes the measurements to calculate the energy per chip for an antenna of the mobile communications network.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of mobile stations are configured to measure one or more operational characteristics of the mobile communication network selected from the group consisting of:

an event code, satellite count, receive power, transmit power, channel, and location information.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of mobile stations are configured to measure the one or more operational characteristics in response to a wireless communications network event.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of mobile stations are configured to measure the one or more operational characteristics at a periodic interval.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of mobile stations are configured to measure the one or more operational characteristics in response to a request from a network element.

23. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine readable storage medium; and

executable program instructions embodied in the machine readable storage medium that when executed by a programmable system of a mobile station causes the system to perform functions comprising;

measuring one or more operational characteristics of the mobile communications network;

determining the location of where the one or more measurements were made;

storing the one or more measurements and the location of the measurements in a memory of the mobile station; and

communicating the stored measurements and location of where the measurements were made to a network element of the wireless communications network.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the function of measuring one or more operational characteristics comprises the function of measuring one or more of the operational characteristics of the mobile communication network selected from the group consisting of:

an event code, satellite count, receive power, transmit power, channel, messaging, time, and location information

25. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the function of communicating comprises the function of communication the stored measurements and location of where the measurements were made at a specified time.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the function of communicating comprises the function of communication the stored measurements and location of where the measurements were made in response to a network event.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the function of communicating comprises the function of communication the stored measurements and location of where the measurements were made via a short messaging system message.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the function of communicating comprises the function of communication the stored measurements and location of where the measurements were made via a data service of the mobile communications network.

29. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the function of measuring one or more operational characteristics comprises the function of measuring the one or more operational characteristics at a periodic interval during the operation of the mobile station.

30. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the function of measuring one or more operational characteristics comprises the function of measuring the one or more operational characteristics in response to a request from another network element.

31. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the function of measuring one or more operational characteristics comprises the function of measuring the one or more operational characteristics in response a network event.

32. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine readable storage medium; and

executable program instructions embodied in the machine readable storage medium that when executed by a programmable system of a server coupled to a mobile communications network causes the system to perform functions comprising;

processing mobile communication network measurements and associated location information captured by and communicated from a plurality of mobile stations communication through the mobile communications network; and

generating a recommendation for a change to one or more network elements to improve the performance of the mobile communications network.

33. The article of manufacture of claim 32 wherein the function of generating the recommendation for change comprises the function of suggesting one or more improved parameters of a base station of the mobile communications network.

34. The article of manufacture of claim 33 wherein the one or more improved parameters of the base station comprises at least one antenna parameter selected from the group consisting of:

antenna height, antenna tilt, azimuth swing, and a power parameter.

35. The article of manufacture of claim 32 wherein the function of processing comprises the function of calculating the energy per chip for an antenna of the mobile communications network.

36. A method of troubleshooting a mobile station operating on a mobile communications network, the method comprising steps of:

receiving, by a network element of the mobile communications network, a plurality of measurements of one or more operational characteristics of the mobile communications network that were captured over time by the mobile station and location information related to where the measurements were taken in by the mobile station;

processing the measurements and location information by the network element; and

identifying, in response to the processing, a problem related to the operation of the mobile station.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein identifying a problem related to the operation of the mobile station comprises identifying a problem with an operational characteristic of the mobile communications network.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein identifying a problem related to the operation of the mobile station comprises identifying a problem with an operational characteristic of the mobile station.

39. The method of claim 36, further comprising generating, in response to the processing, a recommendation for a change to a setting of at least one of the mobile station or a network element of the mobile communications network.