METHOD AND APPARATUS TO DETERMINE A WIRELESS NETWORK COVERAGE AND RESPONSIVENESS

• US 20150230109A1
• Filed: 02/12/2014
• Published: 08/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Empirix Incorporated (Empirix Holdings I, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Empirix Incorporated (Empirix Holdings I, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ivanyi, Tibor, Turner, Laslo, Socaciu, Michael V.
• Granted Patent: US 10,440,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Aspects of the invention may involve systems and methods. In an embodiment, a method to determine wireless network coverage and responsiveness may be described. The method may include wirelessly transmitting test data to determine wireless connectivity and transmission quality; determining a quality of the wireless transmission of the test data; determining a location of the wireless device during the wireless transmission of the test data; updating a log with the location of the wireless device, a time of day of the wireless transmission, and the quality of the wireless transmission; and transmitting the log to a central server.

Claims

1. A method for determining wireless network coverage and responsiveness, the method comprising:

transmitting wirelessly, by a wireless device, test data to determine wireless connectivity and transmission quality;

determining, by the wireless device, a quality of the wireless transmission of the test data;

determining, by the wireless device, a location of the wireless device during the wireless transmission of the test data;

updating, by the wireless device, a log with the location of the wireless device, a time of day of the wireless transmission, and the quality of the wireless transmission; and

transmitting, by the wireless device, the log to a central server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless transmission of test data is automatically transmitted based on:

the location of the wireless device,

on a distance traveled by the wireless device determined by the location and a previous location, or

a passing of a specified interval of time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of the wireless device is determined based on global positioning satellites (GPS), multilateration of two or more base stations, or a connected wireless access point.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless transmission of test data comprises transmission of SIP, HTTP, or RTP formatted data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless transmission of test data comprises:

initiating a telephone call to a specified telephone number;

or

initiating a non-voice data transmission to the central server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the wireless device, network status data, the network status data being determined by data received from a plurality of wireless devices.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

displaying an indicator indicating the status of the network based on the received network status data.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

displaying an indication that a call will have degraded quality or the call will drop based on a current trajectory of the wireless device and the network status data.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

displaying a network coverage map based on the received network status data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the network coverage map is based on at least one of:

wireless network geographic coverage, wireless network coverage based on time of day, or real-time network coverage.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless device receives and transmits data using at least one of:

WiFi, 3G, 4G, LTE, UMTS, WiMAX, or GSM.

12. A method for determining wireless network coverage and responsiveness, the method comprising:

transmitting a software application to a mobile device, wherein the software application causes the mobile device to perform the steps of claim 1.

13. A method for determining wireless network coverage and responsiveness, the method comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors, test data transmitted wirelessly from one or more wireless devices;

determining, by the one or more processors, one or more quality measurements of the wireless transmissions of the test data transmitted from the one or more wireless devices;

transmitting, by the one or more processors, the one or more quality measurements of the one or more wireless transmission to the one or more wireless devices;

receiving, by the one or more processors, log data from the one or more wireless devices, the log data including one or more locations of the one or more wireless devices during one or more transmissions of data by the one or more wireless devices, one or more times of day of the one or more wireless transmissions, and the one or more quality measurements of the one or more wireless transmissions; and

calculating, by the one or more processors, wireless network coverage based on the log data received from the one or more wireless devices.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

calculating wireless network responsiveness based on the log data received from the one or more wireless devices.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

pushing a request to transmit test data to the one or more wireless devices.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

transmitting network coverage data based on the calculated wireless network coverage.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

transmitting a current network status indicator to one or more wireless devices in a geographic area

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the network status indicator is one of:

network congestion issue or network congestion issue resolved.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the network status indicator is one of:

red, yellow, or green.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the wireless network coverage is calculated based on areas of congestion based on time of day or a geographic range of the wireless network coverage.

21. A system for determining wireless network coverage and responsiveness comprising:

one or more computers to send and receive test data; and

a wireless device, the wireless device capable of sending and receiving the test data, the wireless device including a software application, the software application including one or more instructions for;

transmitting and receiving the test data using a wireless connection,

determining connectivity of the wireless connection,

determining a quality of the wireless connection based on the wirelessly transmitted and received test data,

determining a time of day of transmission when the wireless device transmitted the test data,

determining a location where the wireless device transmitted the test data,

updating a log with the location of the wireless device, the time of day of transmission, the connectivity of the wireless connection, and the quality of the wireless connection, and

transmitting the log to the one or more computers.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more computers push the software application to the wireless device.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the one or more computers activate the pushed software application on the wireless device.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more computers transmits a current network status to the wireless device.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the wireless device indicates a state of the current network based on the received current network status and the location of the wireless device.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the wireless device indicates that a call will have degraded quality or the call will drop based on a current trajectory of the wireless device and the current network status.