Local monitoring of cellular base stations

Abstract

Monitoring devices, which in some cases may comprise smartphones, are placed at base stations of a cellular communications network to report base station information. Each monitoring device is configured to periodically determine whether its associated base station is operating correctly, or whether there is some type of anomaly at the base station. As long as there is no anomaly, the monitoring device repeatedly sends status messages to a support service of the cellular communications network. Each such status message indicates that the monitoring device has performed an analysis and has determined there is no serious anomaly at the base station. The support service monitors status messages from multiple monitoring devices. If the support service does not receive a status message within a given period of time, the support service may alert service personnel and/or automatically dispatch support resources to the base station or trigger diagnostics and/or corrective measures.