METHOD AND SYSTEM, WITH COMPONENT KITS FOR DESIGNING OR DEPLOYING A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK WHICH CONSIDERS FREQUENCY DEPENDENT EFFECTS

• US 20070117567A1
• Filed: 01/18/2007
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Wireless Valley Communications Incorporated (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Reifsneider, Eric, Rappaport, Theodore, Skidmore, Roger
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,605 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/446
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/23 Indication means, e.g. displays, alarms, audible means
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/309 Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/336 Signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/3913 Predictive models, e.g. based on neural network models
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/20 for indoor coverage or short range network deployment

Abstract

A computerized model provides a display of a physical environment in which a communications network is or will be installed. The communications network is comprised of several components, each of which are selected by the design engineer and which are represented in the display. Errors in the selection of certain selected components for the communications network are identified by their attributes or frequency characteristics as well as by their interconnection compatibility for a particular design. The effects of changes in frequency on component performance are modeled and the results are displayed to the design engineer. A bill of materials is automatically checked for faults and generated for the design system and provided to the design engineer. For ease of design, the design engineer can cluster several different preferred components into component kits, and then select these component kits for use in the design or deployment process.

Claims

1-40. -40. (canceled)

41. An interactive method of designing a communication system comprising the steps of:

identifying by a designer locations, termed “

watch points”

, in a displayed environment where certain levels of system performance are desirable or critical;

modeling by the designer a communication system using a graphical user interface (GUI) for an environmental database, wherein at least a portion of said communication system may be displayed as being interconnected in the displayed environment;

performing a performance prediction on the modeled communication system; and

providing feedback on a display to the designer regarding a predicted performance metric at the watch points throughout an environment of the modeled communication system.

42. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 41, wherein the watch points are points which the designer identifies by visually pointing and/or clicking with a mouse or other input device at the desired location in the displayed environment.

43. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 41, wherein the feedback provided to the designer at each watch point is a computed number displayed as text that represents one or more performance metrics.

44. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 43, wherein the performance metric is one or more of received signal strength (RSSI), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), frame error rate (FER), bit error rate (BER), packet error rate (PER), throughput, E_c/I_o, delay, noise figure, noise, gain, attenuation, and SINR.

45. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 41, wherein the feedback provided to the designer at each watch point is a small region of solid color whose shade and/or tint varies relative to one or more performance metrics.

46. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 45, wherein the performance metric is one or more of received signal strength (RSSI), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), frame error rate (FER), bit error rate (BER), packet error rate (PER), throughput, E_c/I_o, delay, noise figure, noise, gain, attenuation, SINR.

47. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 41, wherein the feedback provided to the designer at each watch point is in the form of colored lines linking the watch point location with the location of one or more antennas in the communication system, where the color, thickness, and/or other displayed aspect of the connecting line varies relative to one or more performance metrics, or is dependent upon whether a forward or reverse link is being analyzed.

48. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 41, further comprising the steps of:

modifying by the designer the modeled communication system; and

simultaneously performing a performance prediction on the modified modeled communication system and providing feedback on the display to the designer regarding the predicted performance at the watch points.

49. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 41, further comprising the steps of:

moving by the designer the position of one or more watch points in the displayed environment; and

simultaneously performing a performance prediction on the communication system and providing feedback on the display to the designer regarding the predicted performance at the watch points.

50. The interactive method of designing a communication system recited in claim 49, wherein the movement of a watch point represents a mobile user of the communication system.

51. The interactive method of claim 41 wherein said environmental database is three dimensional.

52. The interactive method of claim 41 wherein said communication system modeled in said modeling step includes one or more wireless communication components.

187. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of providing a bill of materials to the designer based on components in the communications system modeled in said modeling step.

188. The method of claim 187 further comprising the step of generating one or more link budgets.

189. The method of claim 187 wherein at least one of said one or more link budgets uses noise figure data from one or more components.

190. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of generating one or more link budgets.

191. The method of claim 190 wherein at least one of said one or more link budgets uses noise figure data from one or more components.

192. The method of claim 190 wherein at least one of the one or more link budgets includes a forward link.

193. The method of claim 190 wherein at least one of the one or more link budgets includes a reverse link.

53. A system for interactive design of a communication system comprising:

means for identifying by a designer locations, termed “

watch points”

, in a displayed environment where certain levels of system performance are desirable or critical;

means for modeling by the designer a communication system using a graphical user interface (GUI) for an environmental database, wherein at least a portion of said communication system may be displayed as being interconnected in the displayed environment;

means for performing a performance prediction on the modeled communication system; and

means for providing feedback on a display to the designer regarding a predicted performance metric at the watch points throughout an environment of the modeled communication system.

54. The system of claim 53, wherein the watch points are points which the designer identifies by visually pointing and/or clicking with a mouse or other input device at the desired location in the displayed environment.

55. The system of claim 53, wherein the feedback provided to the designer at each watch point is a computed number displayed as text that represents one or more performance metrics.

56. The system of claim 55, wherein the performance metric is one or more of received signal strength (RSSI), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), frame error rate (FER), bit error rate (BER), packet error rate (PER), throughput, E_c/I_o, delay, noise figure, noise, gain, attenuation, and SINR.

57. The system of claim 53, wherein the feedback provided to the designer at each watch point is a small region of solid color whose shade and/or tint varies relative to one or more performance metrics.

58. The system of claim 57, wherein the performance metric is one or more of received signal strength (RSSI), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), frame error rate (FER), bit error rate (BER). packet error rate (PER), throughput, E_c/I_o, delay, noise figure, noise, gain, attenuation, and SINR.

59. The system of claim 53, wherein the feedback provided to the designer at each watch point is in the form of colored lines linking the watch point location with the location of one or more antennas in the communication system, where the color, thickness, and/or other physical aspect of the connecting line varies relative to one or more performance metrics, or is dependent upon whether a forward or reverse wireless system channel is being analyzed.

60. The system of claim 53, further comprising:

means for modifying by the designer the modeled communication system; and

means for simultaneously performing a performance prediction on the modified modeled communication system and providing feedback on the display to the designer regarding the predicted performance at the watch points.

61. The system of claim 53, further comprising:

means for moving by the designer the position of one or more watch points in the displayed environment; and

means for simultaneously performing a performance prediction on the communication system and providing feedback on the display to the designer regarding the predicted performance at the watch points.

64. The system of claim 53 wherein said environmental database is three dimensional.

65. The system of claim 53 wherein said communication system modeled in said modeling step includes one or more wireless communication components

180. The apparatus of claim 53 further comprising a means for providing a bill of materials to the designer based on components in the communications system modeled by said means for modeling.

181. The apparatus of claim 180 further comprising a means for generating one or more link budgets.

182. The apparatus of claim 181 wherein at least one of said one or more link budgets uses noise figure data from one or more components.

183. The apparatus of claim 53 further comprising a means for generating one or more link budgets.

184. The apparatus of claim 183 wherein at least one of said one or more link budgets uses noise figure data from one or more components.

185. The apparatus of claim 183 wherein at least one of the one or more link budgets includes a forward link.

186. The apparatus of claim 183 wherein at least one of the one or more link budgets includes a reverse link.

63. The system of claim 62, wherein the movement of a watch point represents a mobile user of the communication system.

66-179. -179. (canceled)

194-201. -201. (canceled)