Wireless network performance analysis system and method

• US 9,210,600 B1
• Filed: 09/07/2012
• Issued: 12/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Shinholster, Drew A. Jr., Jadunandan, Kevin, Lobo, Shane A., Stamborski, Jeff
• Primary Examiner(s): Orgad, Edan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Willmore, Steven
• Application Number:
  US13/607,485
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: 370/370, 370328-329, 370/338, 455/452, 455/452.1, 455/423, 455/424, 455/405, 709/202, 715/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/00 Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/00 Local resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling

Abstract

A system for managing a cellular wireless communication network. The system comprises a data store that comprises cellular wireless communication performance metrics, a computer, and an application that is stored in a non-transitory memory of the computer and executed by the computer. The application receives a selection of base transceiver stations, retrieves metrics associated with the selected base transceiver stations from the data store, analyzes the metrics associated with the selected base transceiver stations, identifies a low usage base transceiver station that is one of the selected base transceiver stations, wherein the low usage base transceiver station is associated with a usage that is less than a predefined usage threshold, determines an average of an at least one metric based on the metrics of the selected base transceiver stations excluding the low usage base transceiver station, and transmits the average of the at least one metric.

Claims

1. A system for maintaining operational performance of a cellular wireless communication network, comprising:

a cellular wireless communication performance data store, wherein the data store comprises a plurality of cellular wireless communication performance metrics, and wherein the plurality of metrics are segmented according to base transceiver stations;

a computer; and

an application stored in a non-transitory memory coupled to the computer that, upon execution by at least one processor of the computer, configures at least one processor to;

receive a selection of a plurality of base transceiver stations of the cellular wireless communication network from a front-end component that corresponds with a user class,

retrieve the plurality of metrics associated with the plurality of selected base transceiver stations from the cellular wireless communication performance data store based on the user class of the front-end component, wherein the plurality of metrics includes usage,

analyze the plurality of metrics associated with the plurality of selected base transceiver stations,

identify a low usage base transceiver station that is one of the plurality of selected base transceiver stations based on usage, wherein the low usage base transceiver station is associated with usage that is less than a predefined usage threshold,

responsive to identification of the low usage base transceiver station, determine an average of at least one metric based on the plurality of metrics associated with the plurality of selected base transceiver stations excluding the low usage base transceiver station, wherein the at least one metric is different from usage,

correlate the at least one metric with at least one previously occurred event along a time line, wherein the at least one previously occurred event comprises at least one of a weather event, a sports event, and a public event,

based on the correlation, associate a portion of the at least one metric with the at least one previously occurred event over a defined time period along the time line,

exclude, from the determined average, the portion of the at least one metric that is associated with the previously occurred event based on the correlation to determine a modified average of the at least one metric,

build a presentation of the at least one metric, the modified average of the at least one metric, and the at least one previously occurred event that are aligned against the timeline, and

transmit the presentation to the front-end component, wherein the presentation configures a display of the front-end component.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising the front-end component that communicatively couples with the cellular wireless communication network, and an events data store that comprises the defined time period for the at least one previously occurred event.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of metrics in the cellular wireless communication performance data store are associated with one of at least 50 wireless communication service markets within the cellular wireless communication network.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the application, upon execution by the processor, further configures at least one processor to:

determine a relative rank of each of the plurality of wireless communication service markets based on the plurality of cellular wireless communication performance metrics, and

present the relative rank of each market on the display responsive to an analysis of the user-class.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of cellular wireless communication performance metrics comprise call drop rates, call block rates, evolution data only (EV-DO) failure rates, and network fault alarms.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the call drop rates and the call block rates are represented as a percentage relative to call attempts.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the network fault alarms are normalized based on a predefined number of subscribers.

8. A method of maintaining operational performance of a cellular wireless communication network, comprising:

providing, to a processor of a front-end component, a map of a portion of the cellular wireless communication network to a display of the front-end component, wherein the map provides identification of base transceiver stations of the cellular wireless communication network;

receiving, on a server of the cellular wireless communication network from the front-end component corresponding with a user class, a designation of a geographical area based on the provided map, wherein the designated geographical area is located within the provided map;

identifying, by a processor of the server, a plurality of base transceiver stations located within the designated geographical area based on the user class of the front-end component;

accessing, by a processor of the server, a plurality of base transceiver station performance metrics from a data store based on the user class of the front-end component, wherein the plurality of base transceiver station performance metrics are associated with the identified base transceiver stations located within the designated geographical area and associated with the cellular wireless communication network;

analyzing, by a processor of the server, the plurality of base transceiver station performance metrics, wherein the plurality of metrics include usage;

identifying a low usage base transceiver station that is one of the plurality of base transceiver stations based on usage, wherein the low usage base transceiver station is associated with usage that is less than a predefined usage threshold;

responsive to the identifying the low usage base transceiver station, determining, by a processor of the server, an average of at least one base transceiver station performance metric based on the plurality of base transceiver station performance metrics excluding the low usage base transceiver station, wherein the at least one metric is different from usage;

correlating, by a processor of the server, the average base transceiver station performance metric with a previously occurred event along a time line, wherein the previously occurred event comprises at least one of a weather event, a sports event, and a public event;

based on the correlating, associating, by a processor of the server, a portion of the average base transceiver station performance metric with the previously occurred event over a defined time period along the time line;

excluding from the determined average, by a processor of the server, the portion of the base transceiver performance metric that is associated with the previously occurred event based on the correlation to determine a modified average of the base transceiver performance metric;

building, by a processor of the server, a presentation of the average base transceiver station performance metric, the modified average of the base transceiver station performance metric, and the previously occurred event that are aligned against the timeline; and

transmitting the presentation to the front-end component, wherein the presentation configures the display of the front-end component.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of base transceiver station performance metrics comprise statistics of short message service (SMS) communication.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of base transceiver station performance metrics comprise a blocked call rate and a dropped call rate.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving a threshold base transceiver station usage level, wherein identifying the plurality of base transceiver stations further comprises excluding each base transceiver station within the designated geographical area that has a usage level that falls below the threshold base transceiver station usage level.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining, by a processor, a market average performance metric that is based on the base transceiver stations within a market area and the user class, wherein the market area comprises the designated geographical area and an area that encompasses the designated geographical area; and

adding, to the presentation, the market average performance metric along the time line of the presentation.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the cellular wireless communication network promotes radio communication based on at least one of a code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless protocol, a global system for mobile communications (GSM) wireless protocol, a long term evolution (LTE) wireless protocol, a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) wireless protocol, or an iDEN wireless protocol.

14. A method of maintaining operational performance of a cellular wireless communication network, comprising:

determining, by a processor of a server of the cellular wireless communication network, a market portion average wireless performance metric based on a plurality of wireless performance metrics associated with base transceiver stations located over a market portion of the cellular wireless communication network and based on a user class of a front-end component, wherein the plurality of wireless performance metrics includes usage;

selecting, by a processor of the server, a plurality of base transceiver stations located within the market portion of the cellular wireless communication network that corresponds with the user class, wherein the selected plurality of base transceiver stations comprises less than one third of the base transceiver stations in the market portion of the cellular wireless communication network;

determining, by a processor of the server, an average wireless performance metric over the selected plurality of base transceiver stations based on at least one wireless performance metric associated with the selected plurality of base transceiver stations and based on the user class of the front-end component, wherein the average wireless performance metric excludes a low usage base transceiver station associated with usage that is less than a predefined usage threshold, and wherein the at least one wireless performance metric is different than usage;

identifying, by a processor of the server, at least one previously occurred event comprising at least one of a weather event, a sports event, and a public event;

determining, by a processor of the server, that one of the at least one previously occurred event is associated with a concentration of people that exceeds a predefined threshold;

associating, by a processor of the server, a portion of the at least one wireless performance metric associated with the selected plurality of base transceiver stations with the previously occurred event associated with the concentration of people that exceeds the predefined threshold, wherein the associated portion is aligned to a time line;

excluding from the determined average, by a processor of the server, the associated portion of each of the wireless performance metrics to determine a modified market portion average wireless performance metric and a modified average wireless performance metric over the selected plurality of base transceiver stations;

building, by a processor of the server, a presentation against the time line, wherein the presentation includes each of the modified wireless performance metrics and the at least one previously occurred event that is aligned to the same time line; and

presenting, on a device display of the front-end component, the presentation against the time line.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining that one of the at least one previously occurred event is associated with the concentration of people that exceeds the predefined threshold comprises accessing a data store comprising a schedule of the one of the at least one previously occurred event.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the one of the at least one previously occurred event associated with the concentration of people that exceeds the predefined threshold comprises at least one of professional sports events, college sports events, graduation ceremonies, and public fireworks displays.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the market portion average wireless performance metric comprises:

selecting, from a data store, wireless performance metrics for base transceiver stations located among at least 50 different markets of the cellular wireless communication network based on the user class, and

analyzing, by a processor, the selected wireless performance metrics for the base transceiver stations located among the at least 50 different markets.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

determining a total market average wireless performance metric that is based on wireless performance metrics for base transceiver stations among all markets of the cellular wireless communication network and based on the user class; and

adding the total market average wireless performance metric to the presentation along the time line.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein a wireless performance metric of a base station transceiver is determined based on a dropped call rate and a blocked call rate of the base station transceiver associated with the wireless performance metric.