System and method for efficiently visualizing and comparing communication network system performance

• US 7,246,045 B1
• Filed: 08/04/2000
• Issued: 07/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Wireless Valley Communications Incorporated (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rappaport, Theodore, Skidmore, Roger, Gold, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, THAI Q
• Application Number:
  US09/632,803
• Time in Patent Office: 2,538 Days
• Field of Search: 703 1- 22, 702188-199, 702124-126, 702 66- 69, 345/427, 345/441, 345/593, 455/424, 455/446, 455/449
• US Class Current: 703/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/23 Indication means, e.g. displays, alarms, audible means
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/3913 Predictive models, e.g. based on neural network models
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/20 for indoor coverage or short range network deployment

Abstract

A method for visualizing and efficiently making comparisons of communication system performance utilizing predicted performance, measured performance, or other performance data sets is described. A system permits visualizing the comparisons of system performance data in three-dimensions using fluctuating elevation, shape, and/or color within a three-dimensional computer drawing database consisting of one or more multi-level buildings, terrain, flora, and additional static and dynamic obstacles (e.g., automobiles, people, filing cabinets, etc.). The method enables a design engineer to visually compare the performance of wireless communication systems as a three-dimensional region of fluctuating elevation, color, or other aesthetic characteristics with fully selectable display parameters, overlaid with the three-dimensional site-specific computer model for which the design was carried out.

Claims

1. A method for designing, managing, optimizing or maintaining a communications network or communications networks, comprising the steps of:

providing

(A) a computerized model which represents a physical environment in which a communications network may be installed, said computerized model providing a display of at least a portion of said physical environment,

(B) performance attributes for a plurality of system components which may be used in said physical environment, and

one or more of

(C) one or more prediction models which use the computerized model and the performance attributes of specific components of said plurality of system components to predict performance characteristics of said communications network, and

(D) actual performance measurements taken from said physical environment at one or more locations during one or more measurement runs;

selecting specific components from said plurality of system components for use in said communications network; and

displaying a computer representation of said physical environment using said computerized model, said computer representation showing locations of specific components selected in said selecting step within said physical environment and performance information for one or more locations within said physical environment, said performance information being any one or more of the following;

(A) showing a comparison of actual performance measurements to predicted performance values,

(B) showing a comparison of actual performance measurements taken during two or more measurement runs, and

(C) showing a comparison of at least two different predictions made with at least two different simulations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said computer representation is presented in three dimensions in said displaying step.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more icons are presented in three dimensions in said displaying step.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a comparison as specified in (A), (B), or (C) in said displaying step is displayed as one or more icons on a computer display in said displaying step.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said one or more icons showing said comparison are presented at said one or more locations in said computer representation of said physical environment.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more icons showing said comparison have a functionality of one or more watch points.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more icons showing said comparison have a functionality of a grid of watch points.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said comparison shows the effects on performance for the communications network which are attributable to using any of the same or different, frequencies, spectrum bands, operational modes, physical environments, communication network designs, network components, data transmission rates, packet sizes, modulation techniques, power levels, pseudonoise code sequencing, pseudonoise code chip timing, optical frequency bands, network protocols, bandwidths, multiple-access techniques, antenna distribution systems, antenna systems, wiring architectures, cabling methods or system distribution methods, physical interconnections of system components, source or error coding methods, traffic loading conditions, user densities, propagation models, or network configurations.

9. The method of claim 1 where one or more icons has an attribute selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, and surface texture, wherein one or more of said attribute varies depending on the performance data.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said one or more icons is depicted as a graphical cylinder.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said plurality of system components are selected from the group consisting of base stations, transceivers, cabling, connectors, splitters, amplifiers, antennas, transmitters, RF distribution lines, base station controllers, switches, optical-to-RF couplers, wireless access points, translators, converters, wireless or infrared or wired infrastructure, optical or RF or baseband network components, firewalls, measurement devices, attenuators, repeaters, couplers, connection boxes, splicers, routers, hubs, transducers, and other hardware components.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said performance information is selected from the group consisting of signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), radio signal strength (RSSI), carrier-to-noise ration (CNR), noise, interference, RMS delay spread, distortion, coverage regions, acceptable service regions, bit or frame error rate, network throughput, latency, packet error rate, quality of service, regions of acceptable quality of service, carried traffic, radio frequency performance values, chip energy to interference ratio, carrier-to-interference ratio, attenuation, radio wave propagation effects, and other wireless communication or other network performance metrics.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of displaying is done in absolute or relative values or in absolute or relative difference values.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of obtaining said actual performance measurements from measurements obtained by one or more of the measurement device group consisting of:

one or more mobile receivers, one or more fixed receivers, one or more remote measurement devices;

one or more autonomous measurement devices;

one or more hand held measurement devices;

one or more sensors;

one or more sensor networks;

one or more embedded receivers;

measurement devices for wireless baseband, RF, or optical networks;

measurement devices for wired baseband, RF or optical networks;

or manual data entry.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said actual performance measurements are obtained in parallel or serially from a plurality or combination of one or more receivers from said measurement device group.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of displaying can be performed at either a client or server.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein said displaying step allows visualizing from more than one angle, orientation, distance or perspective.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein measurement values, predicted values, differences between measurement values, differences between predicted values, or differences between measured and predicted values are all locally averaged.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein measurement values, predicted values, differences between measurement values, differences between predicted values, or differences between measured and predicted values are displayed as an overlay on said computerized model which models at least a portion of the physical environment and its associated network components.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein said displaying step displays performance information of (B), (C), or (D) by using one or more of text, color, grid size, grid color, contour line, grid height, mesh color, mesh size, and bar graph display.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of presenting said performance information at said one or more locations in a form of one or more icons.

22. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of presenting said performance information at said one or more locations as a numerical value.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein said physical environment includes obstacles that affect radio waves or which impede or dictate the routing of wiring paths and other wired components.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the obstacles includes one or more of:

walls, floors, foliage, buildings, and hills.

25. A computerized system for designing, managing, maintaining, or optimizing a communications network or communications networks comprising:

a computer including

(A) a computerized model which represents a physical environment in which a communications network may be installed, said computerized model providing a display of at least a portion of said physical environment,

(B) performance attributes for a plurality of system components which may be used in said physical environment, and

one or more of;

(C) one or more prediction models which use the computerized model and the performance attributes of specific components of said plurality of components to predict performance characteristics of said communications network, and

(D) actual performance measurements taken from said physical environment at one or more locations during one or more measurement runs;

a selector for selecting specific components from said plurality of system components for use in said communications network; and

a display for displaying a computer representation of said physical environment using said computerized model, said computer representation showing locations of specific components selected in said selecting step within said physical environment and performance information for one or more locations within said physical environment, said performance information being any one or more of the following;

(A) showing a comparison of actual performance measurements to predicted performance values,

(B) showing a comparison of actual performance measurements taken during two or more measurement runs, and

(C) showing a comparison of at least two different predictions made with at least two different simulations.

26. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said computer representation is presented in three dimensions in said displaying step.

27. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein one or more icons are presented in three dimensions in said display.

28. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein a comparison presented on said display as specified in (A), (B), or (C) is displayed as one or more icons.

29. The computerized system of claim 28 wherein said one or more icons showing said comparison are presented at said one or more locations in said computer representation of said physical environment.

30. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein one or more icons showing said comparison have a functionality of one or more watch points.

31. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein one or more icons showing said comparison have the functionality of a grid of watch points.

32. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said comparison shows the effects on performance for the communications network which are attributable to using any of the same or different:

frequencies, spectrum bands, operational modes, physical environments, communication network designs, network components, data transmission rates, packet sizes, modulation techniques, power levels, pseudonoise code sequencing, pseudonoise code chip timing, optical frequency bands network protocols, bandwidths, multiple-access techniques, antenna distribution systems, antenna systems, wiring architectures, cabling methods or system distribution methods, physical interconnections of system components, source or error coding methods, traffic loading conditions, user densities, propagation models, or network configurations.

33. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein one or more icons has an attribute selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, and surface texture, wherein one or more of said attribute varies depending on the performance data.

34. The computerized system of claim 33 wherein said one or more icons is depicted as a graphical cylinder.

35. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said plurality of system components are selected from a group consisting of base stations, transceivers, cabling, connectors, splitters, amplifiers, antennas, transmitters, RF distribution lines, base station controllers, switches, optical-to-RF couplers, wireless access points, translators, converters, wireless or infrared or wired infrastructure, optical or RF or baseband network components, firewalls, measurement devices, attenuators, repeaters, couplers, connection boxes, splicers, routers, hubs, transducers, and other hardware components.

36. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said performance information is selected from a group consisting of signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), radio signal strength (RSSI), carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR), noise, interference, RMS delay spread, distortion, coverage regions, acceptable service regions, bit or frame error rate, network throughput, latency, packet error rate, quality of service, regions of acceptable quality of service, carried traffic, radio frequency performance values, chip energy to interference ratio, carrier-to-interference ratio, attenuation, radio wave propagation effects, and other wireless communication or other network performance metrics.

37. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said display provides absolute or relative values or absolute or relative difference values.

38. The computerized system of claim 25 further comprising a means for obtaining said actual performance measurements.

39. The computerized system of claim 38 wherein said means for obtaining said actual performance measurements are provided by one or more of measurement devices chosen from a group consisting of one or more mobile receivers, one or more fixed receivers, one or more remote measurement devices;

one or more autonomous measurement devices;

one or more hand held measurement devices;

one or more sensors;

one or more sensor networks;

one or more embedded receivers;

measurement devices for wireless baseband, RF, or optical networks;

measurement devices or wired baseband, RF, or optical networks;

or manual data entry.

40. The computerized system of claim 39 wherein said actual performance measurements are obtained in parallel or serially from a plurality or combination of one or more receivers from said measurement device group.

41. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said display is located at either or both a client or server.

42. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said display can be adjusted for visualization from more than one angle, orientation, distance, or perspective.

43. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said measurement values, predicted values, differences between measurement values, differences between predicted values, or differences between measured and predicted values are all locally averaged.

44. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein measurement values, predicted values, differences between measurement values, differences between predicted values, or differences between measured and predicted values are displayed as an overlay on said computerized model which models at least a portion of the physical environment and its associated network components.

45. The computerized system of claim 25 wherein said performance information of (B), (C), or (D) is displayed by said display by using one or more of text, color, grid size, grid color, contour line, grid height, mesh color, mesh size, and bar graph display.

46. The method of claim 25 wherein said display presents performance information at said one or more locations in the form of one or more icons.

47. The method of claim 25 wherein said display presents performance information at said one or more locations as a numerical value.

48. The method of claim 25 wherein said physical environment includes obstacles that affect radio waves or which impede or dictate the routing of wiring paths and other wired components.

49. The method of claim 48 wherein obstacles include one or more of:

walls, floors, foliage, buildings, and hills.