QUALIFICATION OF WIRELESS NETWORK ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20140254390A1
• Filed: 03/07/2014
• Published: 09/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ARRIS Solutions, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ansley, Carol J., Nair, Harindranath P., Dhruv, Vishal, May, Elaine
• Granted Patent: US 9,386,474 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/06 Testing, supervising or monitoring using simulated traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices for qualifying quality of service in data services delivered through wireless networks established by wireless access points (WAPs) are disclosed. A portable computing device can be used to execute a wireless network connectivity qualification application that can include functionality for testing and evaluating wireless network connectivity signals between various devices, including the WAP, in a particular local wireless network. Based on the test results, the application can generate recommendations for remedying any detected network issues. The recommendations can be determined from information stored locally on the portable computing device or in remote backend servers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a portable computing device, a wireless access point identifier (WAPID) associated with a wireless access point (WAP);

determining, by the portable computing device, one or more wireless network configurations associated with the WAP in response to the receiving of the WAPID;

performing, by the portable computing device, a wireless connectivity test with the WAP using at least one of the one or more wireless network configurations to test wireless connectivity with the WAP configured using the at least one of the one or more wireless network configurations;

generating, by the portable computing device, a wireless connectivity test result based on the performing of the wireless connectivity test.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising evaluating, by the portable computing device, the wireless connectivity test result to generate a wireless connectivity summary that summarizes the wireless connectivity test.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the wireless connectivity summary comprises a summary grade based on at least a portion of the wireless connectivity test result.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the wireless connectivity summary comprises recommendations for improving the wireless connectivity test result.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more wireless network configurations associated with the WAP comprises:

sending the WAPID to a remote computer system; and

receiving, in response to the WAPID, the one or more wireless network configurations.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the wireless connectivity test comprises:

sending a test request signal to the WAP;

receiving, in response to the test request signal, a test response signal from the WAP; and

analyzing the test response signal to generate the wireless connectivity test result.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein performing the wireless connectivity test comprises:

receiving a first location identifier;

for a first physical location associated with the first location identifier, performing the wireless connectivity test to generate a first wireless connectivity test result;

receiving a second location identifier;

for a second physical location associated with the second location identifier, performing the wireless connectivity test to generate a second wireless connectivity test result; and

comparing the first wireless connectivity test result to the second wireless connectivity test result to generate the wireless connectivity test result.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein performing the wireless connectivity test comprises:

receiving, in the portable computing device, a wireless client identifier associated with a wireless client device;

sending a request message, comprising the wireless client identifier, to the WAP to request wireless connectivity information from the wireless client device;

receiving, in response to the request message, the wireless connectivity information from the WAP that retrieved the wireless connectivity information from the wireless client; and

evaluating the wireless connectivity information to generate the wireless connectivity test result.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless connectivity test result comprises a measurement of signal strength received from the WAP.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless connectivity test result comprises a measurement of data throughput speed through the WAP.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, in response to generating the wireless connectivity test result, a request from the portable computing device to a remote computer system to send an initialization command to the WAP through a wired connection.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the WAPID comprises imaging, by the portable computing device, a code from the WAP.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the WAPID comprises:

monitoring, by the portable computing device, a plurality of wireless network frequency bands; and

detecting, by the portable computing device, a recently broadcast WAPID as the WAPID.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more network configurations comprises a plurality of service set identifiers (SSIDs) and a plurality of radio frequency bands.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the wireless connectivity test result from the portable computing device to a remote computer system executing a quality of service monitoring application.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed, control a computer system to be configured for:

receiving a wireless access point identifier (WAPID), associated with a particular wireless access point (WAP), from a portable computing device;

determining one or more wireless network configurations associated with the WAPID;

sending the one or more wireless network configurations to the portable computing device;

receiving a network connectivity test result regarding the WAP from the portable computing device;

analyzing the network connectivity test result to generate a wireless connectivity summary; and

sending the wireless connectivity summary to the portable computing device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions that control the one or more processors to determine the one or more wireless network configurations further comprise instructions to control the one or more processors to be configured to retrieve the one or more wireless network configurations from a wireless access point configuration data store based on the WAPID.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the wireless connectivity summary comprises recommendations for improving the wireless connectivity results.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions further control the one or more processors to send an initialization command comprising the one or more wireless network configurations to initiate an initialization routine in the WAP.

20. A portable computing device comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, control the one or more computer processors to be configured to;

receive a wireless access point identifier (WAPID) associated with a wireless access point (WAP);

determine one or more wireless network configurations associated with the WAP in response to the WAPID; and

send the one or more wireless network configurations to the portable computing device to cause the portable computing device to perform a wireless connectivity test with the WAP for at least one of the one or more wireless network configurations to generate wireless connectivity test results.