Scoreboard, Inc.

Stan J Gutowski

John Arpee

Mustafa Touati

The RF propagation of a wireless system is normalized to remove the directionality, orientation and gain characteristics of the antennae deployed in the system to allow for enhanced growth management of a wireless system. RF propagation data for a wireless system is gathered by any collection method. For example, drive test of the cellular system can be performed to receive and measure the signal strength throughout the system to determine the receive power of signals from cell sites in the system. Other methods such as uplink collection, E911 data can be used. After measurements of the system are collected, the data is post-processed to remove the effective gain achieved by each antenna associated with each of the signals to normalize the signals to a conceptual antenna having an isotropic radiation pattern. A database of the antenna gain and deployment patterns of the actual antennae in the system is used to normalize the data. The expected receive power of the conceptual antennae signals at the locations throughout the cellular system are determined using a propagation model. The modeled conceptual signals correspond to the measured signals and the characteristics of the conceptual antennae substituted to model the conceptual signals. The Propagation modeling can be revised through analysis of the correlation with the measured data. Once the system has been normalized and the propagation model is acceptably accurate, the system designer can model data corresponding to a variety of antenna gain, directionality and orientation choices to effectively enhance growth management through effective redeployment and specification of antennae without the need to physically experiment with antenna of varying characteristics and perform numerous data collections after antennae substitutions or reconfigurations. A final data collection such as a final drive test can be performed after implementation of a new antenna deployment.

Path loss data normalization for growth management of a cellular system

A method utilizing statistical interpolation techniques to analyze and simulate the spatial variability and continuity of radio frequency data collected from a wireless cellular system. The method is used for cellular system planning and management. After installation and setup of cellular base stations, further analysis and refinement of RF data is implemented to determine signal coverage of the tower, location of RF holes in system, reuse of frequencies, and overlapping RF signals between two or more towers causing interference. The method analyzes raw RF power data that is collected by drive testing a sample of roads in a cellular system. A geostatistical model of the RF propagation at a cellular system is determined through kriging. The RF path loss trend estimation is extracted from each the raw data and modeled to describe data variability across the entire cellular system ares. An estimated path loss signal map is then prepared for any area of interest within a cellular system.

Apparatus and method for geostatistical analysis of wireless signal propagation

A data collection and evaluation method for determination of wireless signal propagation from an incomplete set of measured data. The present invention decodes digital identification information on the channel used to associate the measurement with a wireless antenna and/or sector. The decoding process is limited by interference and low signal levels, therefore, the resulting data will have locations or entire areas where digital identification codes cannot be determined and the signal origination antenna cannot be identified. The present invention introduces geostatistical data interpretation techniques to determine the signal level values at the missing measurement locations. The present invention can obtain a more complete set of data for all sectors in the data collection area, allowing for more accurate performance evaluation and greater planning information. The present invention teaches the application of variogram modeling and kriging for wireless signal propagation modeling.

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Arlington, VA, United States of America

Stan J Gutowski