WIRELESS NETWORK SITE SURVEY SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20140198670A1
• Filed: 01/11/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Mahasenan, Arun Vijayakumari, Chernoguzov, Alexander, Bill, Todd
• Granted Patent: US 9,491,639 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/20 for indoor coverage or short range network deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Wireless network site survey systems and methods are described herein. One system includes a plurality of wireless nodes placed at a number of locations and a computing device configured to receive communication metrics, wherein the communication metrics include metrics of communication between the plurality of wireless nodes and between the computing device and each of the plurality of wireless nodes, and generate a node coverage map based on the received communication metrics.

Claims

1. A wireless network site survey system, comprising:

a plurality of wireless nodes placed at a number of locations; and

a computing device configured to;

receive communication metrics, wherein the communication metrics include metrics of communication between the plurality of wireless nodes and between the computing device and each of the plurality of wireless nodes; and

generate a node coverage map based on the received communication metrics.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is configured to determine a link quality between each of the plurality of wireless nodes.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of wireless nodes includes a root access point.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the root access point is stationary at a particular location and the remaining plurality of wireless nodes are each moved to a different location, wherein the different location is within a communication threshold of the root access point.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the node coverage map is expanded to include the different locations of the plurality of wireless nodes.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a remote computing device to receive a number of beacon messages from the plurality of wireless nodes at a number of locations.

7. A method for wireless network site surveying, comprising;

placing a number of wireless nodes at a first set of locations;

placing a root access point at a particular location in communication with at least one of the number of wireless nodes;

receiving communication metrics from the number of wireless nodes at the first set of locations and the root access point;

moving the number of wireless nodes to a second set of locations that is in communication with the root access point at the particular location;

receiving communication metrics from the number of wireless nodes at the second set of locations and the root access point; and

generating a node coverage map based on the received communication metrics, wherein the node coverage map includes the first and second set of locations.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein moving the number of wireless nodes includes creating a leap frog over the root access point.

9. The method of claim 7, comprising determining communication metrics between a first wireless node from the first set of locations and a second wireless node from the second set of locations.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining communication metrics includes moving a particular wireless node from a first location to a second location and determining the communication metrics between the first location and the second location.

11. The method of claim 7 comprising selecting a number of locations for receiving the communication metrics.

12. The method of claim 7, comprising determining a connectivity between each of the plurality of wireless nodes.

13. A wireless network site survey system, comprising:

a plurality of wireless nodes placed at a number of locations within a designated area to send a number of beacon messages to each of the other wireless nodes within a particular area and to a computing device;

a root access node placed a particular location within the particular area; and

the computing device configured to;

determine communication metrics by analyzing received beacon messages from the plurality of wireless nodes;

determine communication metrics by analyzing received beacon messages from a first wireless node relating to communication metrics of the first and a second wireless node of the plurality of wireless nodes; and

generate a node coverage map based on the received communication metrics.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the computing is configured to create a virtual topology of a number of wireless nodes based on the communication metrics and the number of locations.

15. The system, of claim 13, wherein the node coverage map includes a heat map of the designated area.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the computing device can simulate communication metrics between two wireless nodes based on the determined communication metrics.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein simulating communication metrics includes simulating communication between a physical wireless node and a non-physical wireless node.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the root node is a stationary node when moving the number of wireless nodes to a second number of locations.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the node coverage map is generated prior to a wireless network installation.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the number of beacon messages are sent periodically over a fixed channel.