Error correlation for wireless networks

• US 6,650,896 B1
• Filed: 08/13/1998
• Issued: 11/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Haymes, Charles Louis, Zumbo, Dominick Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, CONGVAN
• Application Number:
  US09/133,649
• Time in Patent Office: 1,923 Days
• Field of Search: 455/11.1, 455/437, 455/522, 455/427, 455/12.1, 455/446, 455/456.1, 455/423, 455/418, 455/421, 455/422, 455/436, 455/432, 455/9, 714/708, 714/704, 375/240.27, 375/225
• US Class Current: 455/423
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements

Abstract

Alternate methods, devices and systems are presented for providing service providers and/or end users of mobile stations to monitor and/or report regions with high error rates and/or dead zones. A protocol is provided such as to yield the error occurrence, error rate and/or the address of the end user. In some embodiments it also contains location information and time of day information. This information may be collected from the G.P.S., and/or all or a portion of users when there is a significant transmission difficulty and/or an abundance of errors. The collected data forms a database which is analyzed to generate coverage maps. This may include the dynamic aspects of the mobile network. In another aspect of this invention, each mobile station periodically compares its current location with the data base. The results of this comparison enables the mobile unit to anticipate connection problems. In still another aspect of the invention, the comparison is performed by the service provider which notifies the end user.

Claims

1. A method to detect dead zones in a wireless network, said network having a plurality of users being interconnected within the wireless network and having a plurality of base stations communicating with said plurality of users in a plurality of cells corresponding to said base stations and said network having means for locating users within cells, said method comprising:

a first user of said plurality of users communicating via said wireless network,

the first user measuring and detecting a message error rate while communicating,

said first user broadcasting an error message to a base station when the error rate exceeds an error threshold level,

said base station obtaining a location of the first user,

said base station incorporating the location in a database of dead zones for the wireless network; and

said base station transmitting a warning message to others of said plurality of users near the location of the first user.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of a subset of the users has a mobile unit forming a mobile user connection with the wireless network, whereby said network maintains information on the location of said subset of users within said set of cells.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the wireless network includes a plurality of cellular phones.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the wireless network includes a plurality of portable computing devices interconnected via a wireless local area network.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising a step of deploying a subset of the users within at least one building.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising the step of forming a map of dead zones in said building.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of error detecting includes cyclic error detection.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of error detecting includes performing parity checking.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of error detecting includes performing a checksum calculation.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the error threshold level is one part in a million.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the error threshold level guarantees clear reception of data.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said step of broadcasting uses a signal having a high probability of reception by the base station in a dead zone.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the step of broadcasting the error message is performed at twice the power level used in normal message transmission.

14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of broadcasting employs a different transmission channel having a greater probability of reception than an original channel employed by the step of measuring.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of broadcasting is performed at a lower data rate than a first data rate employed by step of measuring.

16. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of replicating the database at at least one other base station.

17. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of replicating the database at at least one other network device.

18. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining includes rotating a direction of at least one antenna.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the step of obtaining employs triangulation.

20. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the step of obtaining includes employing a wired LAN connecting multiple base stations.

21. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

said first user entering an error transmit mode;

said base station issuing at acknowledge to the first user; and

said first user ending the error transmit mode.

22. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising, said first user entering an error transmit mode, and wherein the step of broadcasting is repeated a fixed number of times, and said first user ending the error transmit mode.

23. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising, said first user entering an error transmit mode, and wherein the step of broadcasting is repeated over a fixed time interval, and said first user ending the error transmit mode.

24. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of logging the error message and location, and the step of broadcasting is delayed for transmittal to the base station at a later time.

25. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of extracting data from a plurality of error messages, and storing the data in the database for future retrieval and/or manipulation.

26. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the database is resident at a network management station.

27. A method as recited in claim 25, further comprising the step of forming a database of error reports, and extracting a set of features from the database.

28. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein said step of extracting includes determining a level of service provided by the mobile network to at least the first user.

29. A method as recited in claim 27, further comprising the step of processing the database to determine an occurrence of a repetitive time dependent feature.

30. A method according to claim 2, in which said warning message transmitted by the base station to said others of said plurality of users near the location of the first user includes directions to change at least one of transmission channel, transmission power, or travel direction.

31. A method as recited in claim 30, wherein the error threshold level guarantees clear reception of data.

32. A method as recited in claim 31, wherein said step of broadcasting uses a signal having a high probability of reception by the base station in a dead zone.

33. A method as recited in claim 32, wherein the step of broadcasting the error message is performed at twice the power level used in normal message transmission.

34. A method as recited in claim 32, wherein the step of broadcasting employs a different transmission channel having a greater probability of reception than an original channel employed by the step of measuring.

35. A method as recited in claim 32, wherein the step of broadcasting is performed at a lower data rate than a first data rate employed by step of measuring.

36. A method to detect dead zones in a wireless network employed in an outdoor environment, said wireless network having a plurality of users and a plurality of base stations being interconnected within the wireless network, said method comprising:

a first user communicating via said wireless network, the first user measuring and detecting a message error rate while communicating, said first user broadcasting an error message to one of the base stations when the message error rate exceeds an error threshold level, obtaining a location of the first user, and said one base station incorporating the location in a database of dead zones for the wireless network, wherein the wireless network includes a plurality of members, said method further comprising;

at least one of said members keeping track of a number of error packets in a packet window;

entering an error transmit reporting mode when the number of error packets exceeds an error threshold; and

reporting an error condition to one of the base stations; and

wherein said steps of obtaining is performed by a base station.

37. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of detecting includes performing cyclic error detection.

38. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of error detecting includes parity checking.

39. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of error detecting includes checksum calculation.

40. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the error threshold level is one part in ten million.

41. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the error threshold level guarantees a satisfactory level of reception of communication data.

42. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the error message is broadcast with a signal having a high probability of reception by the base station in a dead zone.

43. A method as recited in claim 42, wherein the step of broadcasting the error message is at twice the power level of normal message transmission.

44. A method as recited in claim 42, wherein the step of broadcasting the error message is via a different transmission channel with a greater probability of reception.

45. A method as recited in claim 42, wherein the step of broadcasting the error message is at a lower data rate.

46. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the time when the error occurred is included in an error message from the member to the base station.

47. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of reporting includes providing an identity of said at least one of said members.

48. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of obtaining includes querying a Global Positioning System to determine the location.

49. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of obtaining includes querying a Loran-C positioning system to determine the members location.

50. A method as recited in claim 36, further comprising:

said first user entering an error transit mode,

said one base station issuing at acknowledge to the first user upon receiving an error message from the first user, and

said first user ending the error transmit mode.

51. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of broadcasting is repeated a fixed number of times.

52. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of broadcasting the error message is repeated over a fixed time interval.

53. A method as recited in claim 36, further comprising the step of logging the error message and location, and the step of broadcasting is delayed for transmittal at a time of low network traffic.

54. method as recited in claim 36, further comprising the step of extracting data from a plurality of error messages and storing the data in a database for future manipulation and/or retrieval.

55. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the database is resident at a network management station.

56. A method as recited in claim 36, further comprising the step of replicating the database at at least one other network device.

57. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of obtaining includes employing a Global Positioning System (GPS) module.

58. method as recited in claim 36, wherein the step of obtaining includes employing a Loran-C positioning system module.

59. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein each of a subset of the users has a mobile unit forming a mobile user connection with the wireless network.

60. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein the wireless network includes a plurality of cellular phones.

61. A method as recited in claim 57, wherein a GPS module is built into a vehicle interconnected with the wireless network.

62. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein a subset of the users includes a plurality of vehicles interconnected via a wireless wide area network.

63. A method as recited in claim 36, further comprising a step of deploying a subset of the users within at least one building.