Wireless communication network measurement data collection using infrastructure overlay-based handset location systems
First Claim
1. In a wireless communication system having a plurality of base stations defining a signal coverage area for communicating with a mobile-appliance, and having a mobile-appliance location determining system overlay for determining the location of the mobile-appliance in the coverage area, a method of collecting test and measurement data, comprising the steps of:
- (a) selecting one of the plural base stations to search for a transmitting mobile-appliance;
(b) at the selected one of the plural base stations, searching for a transmitting mobile-appliance by scanning frequency, time slot and code as a function of a set of operating parameters of the wireless communication system;
(c) once a transmitting mobile appliance is detected, determining if the quality of the signal reception from the transmitting mobile appliance is acceptable;
(d) selecting a set of the plural base stations in the vicinity of the transmitting mobile-appliance;
(e) at ones of the plural base stations in the selected set, measuring the signal received from the transmitting mobile-appliance; and
,(f) storing the measured signal data.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for collecting test and measurement data for a wireless communication system utilizes a network overlay geo-location system to collect the data. The wireless communication system has plural base stations defining a signal coverage area for communication with a mobile appliance and collects test and measurement data simultaneous on the forward and reverse links during standard geo-location processes. The wireless communication system also collects test and measurement data when the network overlay geolocation system is in an idle state.
71 Citations
39 Claims
-
1. In a wireless communication system having a plurality of base stations defining a signal coverage area for communicating with a mobile-appliance, and having a mobile-appliance location determining system overlay for determining the location of the mobile-appliance in the coverage area, a method of collecting test and measurement data, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) selecting one of the plural base stations to search for a transmitting mobile-appliance; (b) at the selected one of the plural base stations, searching for a transmitting mobile-appliance by scanning frequency, time slot and code as a function of a set of operating parameters of the wireless communication system; (c) once a transmitting mobile appliance is detected, determining if the quality of the signal reception from the transmitting mobile appliance is acceptable; (d) selecting a set of the plural base stations in the vicinity of the transmitting mobile-appliance; (e) at ones of the plural base stations in the selected set, measuring the signal received from the transmitting mobile-appliance; and
,(f) storing the measured signal data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
- 11. In a method of collecting test and measurement data from a wireless communication system having a plurality of base stations defining a signal coverage area for communication with a mobile-appliance, wherein the base stations communicate with the mobile-appliance on a forward link transmission and the mobile appliance communicates with the base station on a reverse link transmission, the improvement comprising collecting forward and reverse data with equipment installed at the base stations only, and extracting the reverse data from the transmitting mobile-appliance'"'"'s signal wherein the extracting comprises demodulating and decoding a portion of the transmitting mobile-appliance'"'"'s signal.
- 15. In a method of collecting test and measurement data in a wireless communication system having a plurality of base stations defining a signal coverage area for communicating with a mobile-appliance, the improvement wherein the test and measurement data is collected from transmissions between the mobile-appliance and the base stations during normal operation of the communication system and without adding any calling traffic to the network, and extracting reverse link data from a signal transmitted from the mobile-appliance wherein the extracting comprises demodulating and decoding a portion of the transmitting mobile-appliance'"'"'s signal.
-
17. In a method of collecting test and measurement data in a wireless communication system having a plurality of base stations defining a signal coverage area for communicating with a mobile-appliance, and having a mobile appliance location determining system overlay for determining the location of the mobile appliance in the coverage area, the improvement wherein the test and measurement data is collected by the location determining system wherein the location determining system collects the data during the process of locating the mobile appliance in response to a geolocation reguest, and wherein the location determining system aborts the collection of data when a geolocation reguest is received by the location determining system.
-
18. In a wireless communication system with a network overlay geo-location system for locating mobile appliances in communication with the wireless communication system, a method for system-initiated test and measurement data collection comprising the steps of:
-
selecting a probe area and tasking a probe geo-location sensor associated with the probe area to search for an active mobile appliance operating within the probe area; selecting a probe mobile appliance from the probe area; selecting other geo-location sensors proximate to the probe area to detect a signal from the probe mobile appliance; measuring geo-location parameters and signal quality parameters of the probe mobile appliance signal at the probe geo-location sensor and at ones of the other geo-location sensors; storing the measured signal quality parameters; and
,monitoring for receipt of a location request by the geo-location system and aborting the system-initiated test and measurement data collection after receipt of a location request by the geo-location system, wherein the step of searching for an active mobile-appliance comprises the step of scanning frequency, time slot and code as a function of operating parameters of the wireless communication system. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22)
-
- 23. In a method of operating a geo-location system that geo-locates a mobile appliance in response to an external geo-location request where the mobile appliance is in communication with a wireless communication system including a network overlay geo-location system with plural base stations where each of the base stations serves at least one sector, the improvement comprising collecting test and measurement information with the geo-location system when the geo-location system is in an otherwise idle state wherein the collecting of test and measurement information is aborted when the geo-location system is no longer in the idle state and wherein the test and measurement information is collected on both forward and reverse communication links substantially simultaneously.
-
31. In a method of collecting test and measurement data in a wireless communication system having a plurality of base stations defining a signal coverage area for communicating with a mobile-appliance, and having a mobile appliance location determining system overlay for determining the location of the mobile appliance in the coverage area, the improvement wherein the test and measurement data is collected by the location determining system wherein the location determining system collects the data only when the location determining system is in an otherwise idle state and wherein the location determining system aborts the collection of data when a geolocation request is received by the location determining system.
- 32. In a method of operating a geo-location system that geo-locates a mobile appliance in response to an external geo-location request where the mobile appliance is in communication with a wireless communication system including a network overlay geo-location system with plural base stations where each of the base stations serves at least one sector, the improvement comprising collecting test and measurement information with the geo-location system when the geo-location system is in an otherwise idle state wherein the test and measurement information is collected without adding calling traffic to the wireless communication system and wherein the test and measurement information is collected on both forward and reverse communication links substantially simultaneously.
Specification