System and method for an automated radio network planning tool

• US 6,771,966 B1
• Filed: 11/17/2000
• Issued: 08/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CarrierComm, Inc. (Moseley Wireless Solutions Group)
• Original Assignee: CarrierComm, Inc. (Moseley Wireless Solutions Group)
• Inventors: Chow, Peter El Kwan
• Primary Examiner(s): GELIN, JEAN ALLAND
• Application Number:
  US09/715,235
• Time in Patent Office: 1,355 Days
• Field of Search: 455/446, 455/447, 455/449, 455/452.1, 455/453, 455/454, 455/423, 455/67.11, 455/67.14, 455/67.16, 455/75
• US Class Current: 455/446
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for planning the deployment of a plurality of receiver/transmitter pairs such that wireless communication links may be established meeting design criteria and allowing for the addition of future wireless communication links. A master planning tool is preferably provided which utilizes a simplified set of design rules in order to allow for the analysis of a large number of mutually interfered wireless communication links. Preferably, link analysis is accomplished in multiple orders of analysis, such as a master planning analysis, a wireless link design analysis, a field verification analysis, and/or an in-service analysis. Link planning according to the present invention provides for high density deployment of radios, such as for a urban area radio network. Additionally, link planning according to the present invention allows for the determination of an increased link density at particular sites to provide sharing of a resource located at that site as well as to provide a wide area topology to handle large area coverage. Link planning according to the present invention may also use link budget equations represented in a simplified tabular format by the estimation of included variables with constants and expected system and radio characteristics.

Claims

1. A system for wireless link planning comprising:

a set of design rules broadly applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired;

a database of radio node sites providing positional information with respect to other radio node sites contained in said database of radio node sites;

a processor in communication with said set of design rules and said database, said processor operable to compute possible wireless links between all pairings of said radio node sites contained in the database that contain a computation radio node site and a target radio node site and that include target radio node sites which are within the effective range of the computation radio node site, said processor further operable to apply said design rules to said wireless link possibilities, and to evaluate possible wireless links with respect to said set of design rules.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said processor limits said pairings between said radio node sites to be within line of sight of each other.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said set of design rules are adapted for use in discrete stages in which the number of possible wireless links are reduced to produce a favored topology.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor includes environmental factors in said link budget equations.

5. A system for wireless link planning comprising:

a set of design rules that represent link budget equations and are broadly applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired;

a database of radio node sites providing positional information with respect to other radio node sites contained in said database of radio node sites;

a processor in communication with said set of design rules and said database, said processor operable to compute possible wireless links between all pairings of said radio node sites contained in the database that contain a computation radio node site and a target radio node site, said processor further operable to apply said design rules to said wireless link possibilities, and to evaluate possible wireless links with respect to said set of design rules, wherein said link budget equations represent a computation radio node site'"'"'s signal strength at said target radio node site.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said link budget equations represent computations concerning a received signal power at said target radio node site and an interference power at said target radio node site.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said processor computes a ratio of said received signal power at the target radio node site to said interference power at the target radio node site.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said link budget equations are represented as tables and said processor accesses said tables to determine link budget equation results.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said tables are simplified by the estimation of variables within the link budget equations.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein said processor limits said pairings between said radio node sites to be within line of sight of each other.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein said set of design rules are adapted for use in discrete stages in which the number of possible wireless links are reduced to produce a favored topology.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor includes environmental factors in said link budget equations.

13. A system for wireless link planning comprising:

a set of design rules broadly applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired, said set of design rules adapted for use in discrete stages in which the number of possible wireless links are reduced to produce a favored topology;

a database of radio node sites providing positional information with respect to other radio node sites contained in said database of radio node sites;

a processor in communication with said set of design rules and said database, said processor operable to compute possible wireless links between all pairings of said radio node sites contained in the database that contain a computation radio node site and a target radio node site, said processor further operable to apply said design rules to said wireless link possibilities, and evaluate possible wireless links with respect to said set of design rules, wherein a first discrete stage of said design rules is performed to identify all possible wireless links from the computation radio node site to the target radio node sites which are within line of sight of each other and within reaching distance of a radio located at the computation radio node site.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein a second discrete stage determines interferences between links in the network.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said interferences are determined by interference computations which are performed between computation radio node sites and target radio node sites to determine interferences between the radio node sites.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said interference categorizes each of said possible wireless links as one of mutually independent of other of said possible wireless links or mutually exclusive of other said possible wireless links.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein a third discrete stage eliminates possible wireless links based on said interferences between possible wireless links.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the elimination of possible wireless links is performed by applying link selection criterion.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said link selection criterion eliminates possible wireless links which interfere with the greatest number of other possible wireless links and provides remaining possible wireless links.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a fourth discrete stage examines remaining possible wireless links and determines potential networks by using said remaining possible wireless links to provide a direct connection or a connection through another radio node site for all radio node sites.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein a fifth discrete stage examines said potential networks and by applying said design rules selects a favored topology.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein said set of design rules represent link budget equations, wherein said link budget equations represent a computation radio node site'"'"'s signal strength at said target radio node site.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein said link budget equations represent computations concerning a received signal power at said target radio node site and an interference power at said target radio node site.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein said processor computes a ratio of said received signal power at the target radio node site to said interference power at the target radio node site.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein said link budget equations are represented as tables and said processor accesses said tables to determine link budget equation results.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein said tables are simplified by the estimation of variables within the link budget equations.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein said processor uses said table to categorize each of said possible wireless links as mutually independent of other of said possible wireless links or mutually exclusive of other said possible wireless links.

28. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor includes environmental factors in said link budget equations.

29. A method for planning dense network topology comprising the steps of:

establishing a set of design rules broadly applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired;

providing a database of radio node sites providing positional information with respect to other radio node sites contained in said database of radio node sites;

computing possible wireless links between all pairings of said radio node sites contained in the database that include target radio node sites which are within the effective range of the computation radio node site by at least considering the first of said radio node sites as a computation radio node site and the second as a target radio node site;

applying said design rules to said wireless link possibilities; and

evaluating said possible wireless links with respect to said set of design rules.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said step of computing possible wireless links between pairings of said radio node sites comprises the steps of:

limiting said pairings to pairings in which said radio node sites are within line of sight of each other.

31. A method for planning dense network topology comprising the steps of:

providing a database of radio node sites providing positional information with respect to other radio node sites contained in said database of radio node sites, considering the first of said radio node sites as a computation radio node site and the second as a target radio node site;

establishing a set of design rules broadly applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired, including link budget equations within the design rules wherein said link budget equations represent a computation radio node site'"'"'s signal strength at said target radio node site;

computing possible wireless links between all pairings of said radio node sites contained in the database;

applying said design rules to said wireless link possibilities; and

evaluating said possible wireless links with respect to said set of design rules.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein said step of including link budget equations within the design rules comprises the steps of:

representing computations concerning a received signal power at said target radio node site and an interference power at said target radio node site within the design rules.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein said step of computing possible wireless links comprises the steps of:

computing a ratio of said received signal power at the target radio node site to said interference power at the target radio node site.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein said step of computing a ratio of said received signal power at the target radio node site to said interference power at the target radio node site comprises the steps of:

representing the ratio as tables and said step of computing possible wireless links accesses said tables to determine link budget equation results.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein said step or representing said ratio as tables comprises the steps of:

simplifying said tables by the estimation of variables within the link budget equations.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein said step of simplifying said tables comprises the steps of:

estimating table values based on radio performance parameters and system performance parameters.

37. The method of claim 31, wherein said step of computing possible wireless links between pairings of said radio node sites comprises the steps of:

limiting said pairings to pairings in which said radio node sites are within line of sight of each other.

38. A method for planning dense network topology comprising the steps of:

establishing a first set of design rules broadly applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired;

establishing a second set of design rules specifically applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired;

providing a database of radio node sites providing positional information with respect to other radio node sites contained in said database of radio node sites;

computing possible wireless links between all pairings of said radio node sites contained in the database;

applying said first set of design rules to said possible wireless links;

evaluating said possible wireless links with respect to said first set of design rules;

prioritizing said possible wireless links as a result of said step of evaluating said possible wireless links with respect to said first set of design rules;

generating a first prioritized list from the step of prioritizing said possible wireless links;

applying said second set of design rules to said first prioritized list;

evaluating said first prioritized list;

prioritizing said first prioritized list as a result of said step of evaluating said first prioritized list; and

generating a second prioritized list.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising the steps of:

establishing a third set of design rules specifically applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired;

applying said third set of design rules to said second prioritized list;

evaluating said second prioritized list with respect to said third set of design rules;

prioritizing said second prioritized list as a result of said step of evaluating said second prioritized list with respect to said third set of design rules;

generating a third prioritized list from the step of prioritizing said second prioritized list.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising the steps of:

establishing a fourth set of design rules specifically applicable to all wireless links of a group of wireless links for which wireless link planning is desired;

applying said fourth set of design rules to said third prioritized list;

evaluating said third prioritized list with respect to said fourth set of design rules;

prioritizing said third prioritized list as a result of said step of evaluating said third prioritized list with respect to said fourth set of design rules;

generating a fourth prioritized list from the step of prioritizing said third prioritized list.

41. A radio network planning tool comprising:

radio node information data including location information with respect to a plurality of radio nodes to be linked and information with respect to a type of one or more radio nodes of said plurality of radio nodes;

a radio link connectivity algorithm operable to determine potential radio links, wherein said determined potential radio links include radio links for establishing radio communication from a particular node of a first type of node of said plurality of radio nodes to a plurality of nodes of a second type of nodes of said plurality of radio nodes;

a radio link reduction algorithm operable to identify undesired links of said determined potential radio links;

a radio link co-existence algorithm operable to determine mutually independent links of said determined potential radio links; and

a radio link optimization algorithm operable to select a subset of radio links of said potential radio links suitable for establishing communication between said particular node of said first type and said plurality of nodes of said second type.

42. The radio network planning tool of claim 41, wherein said first type of node is a distributing node.

43. The radio network planning tool of claim 42, wherein said second type of node is a subscriber node.

44. The radio network planning tool of claim 43, wherein said plurality of radio nodes to be linked includes only said first and second types of nodes and wherein said plurality of nodes of said second type includes all nodes of said second type of said plurality of radio nodes to be linked.

45. The radio network planning tool of claim 41, wherein said determined potential radio links includes all potential radio links between said radio nodes to be linked.

46. The radio network planning tool of claim 41, wherein said undesired links of said determined potential radio links include radio links which are unsupportable according to predetermined network apparatus criteria.

47. The radio network planning tool of claim 41, wherein said undesired links of said determined potential radio links include radio links which do not provide line of sight interfaces between radios of said nodes.

48. The radio network planning tool of claim 41, wherein said undesired links of said determined potential radio links include radio links which result in a radio link of excessive distance.

49. The radio network planning tool of claim 41, wherein selection of said subset of radio links comprises selection of a minimum number of radio links to establish communication meeting desired performance characteristics between said particular node of said first type and said plurality of nodes of said second type.

50. The radio network planning tool of claim 41, wherein selection of said subset of radio links comprises selection of a configuration of radio links to establish a maximum number of direct radio links between said particular node of said first type and ones of said plurality of nodes of said second type.

51. The radio network planning tool of claim 41, further comprising:

a user interface operable to accept human interaction with respect to selection of links of said determined potential radio links as said selected subset of radio links.

52. The radio network planning tool of claim 51, wherein said human interaction includes human overriding of identification of said undesired links.

53. The radio network planning tool of claim 51, wherein said human interaction includes identification of preferred radio links of said determined potential radio links.

54. The radio network planning tool of claim 53, wherein said identification includes a weighted hierarchy of ones of said determined potential radio links.

56. The method of claim 53, further comprising:

accepting human interaction with respect to selection of links of said determined potential radio links as said selected subset of radio links.

55. A method for radio network planning comprising:

storing radio node information data including location information with respect to a plurality of radio nodes to be linked and information with respect to a type of one or more radio nodes of said plurality of radio nodes;

determining potential radio links, wherein said determined potential radio links include radio links for establishing radio communication from a particular node of a first type of node of said plurality of radio nodes to a plurality of nodes of a second type of nodes of said plurality of radio nodes;

identifying undesired links of said determined potential radio links;

determining mutually independent links of said determined potential radio links; and

selecting a subset of radio links of said potential radio links suitable for establishing communication between said particular node of said first type and said plurality of nodes of said second type.

57. The method of claim 55, wherein said storing radio node information comprises:

identifying at least said particular node of said first type of node as a distributing node.

58. The method of claim 55, wherein said storing radio node information comprises:

identifying each radio node of said plurality of radio nodes of said second type of node as a subscriber node.

59. The method of claim 55, wherein said determining potential radio links comprises:

determining all potential radio links between said radio nodes to be linked.

60. The method of claim 55, wherein said identifying undesired links comprises:

identifying radio links which are unsupportable according to predetermined network apparatus criteria.

61. The method of claim 55, wherein said identifying undesired links comprises:

identifying radio links which do not provide line of sight interfaces between radios of said nodes.

62. The method of claim 55, wherein said identifying undesired links comprises:

identifying radio links which result in a radio link of excessive distance.

63. The method of claim 55, wherein said selecting a subset of radio links comprises:

selecting a minimum number of radio links to establish communication meeting desired performance characteristics between said particular node of said first type and said plurality of nodes of said second type.

64. The method of claim 55, wherein said selecting a subset of radio links comprises:

selecting a configuration of radio links to establish a maximum number of direct radio links between said particular node of said first type and ones of said plurality of nodes of said second type.