Method and system for modeling and managing terrain, buildings, and infrastructure

A network design and management system for a wireless communications network, comprising:

• one or more computer platforms on which a computerized site specific model of a physical environment is displayed, said computerized site specific model has a representation of said physical environment with computer representations of a plurality of components distributed in said physical environment, wherein at least one of said computer representations of said plurality of components is associated with at least one of cost data, infrastructure data, maintenance data, ownership data, performance data, installation data, depreciation data, and equipment settings, at least one of said one or more computer platforms can provide a prediction of one or more wireless communications performance data based on said computerized site specific model;
• a plurality of physical components distributed or distributable within said physical environment represented by said computerized site specific model, at least some of said plurality of physical components corresponding to at least some of said plurality of components represented in said computerized site specific model of said wireless communications network, at least one of said plurality of physical components being used to provide infrastructure for wireless communications;
• and
• at least one measurement device for measuring at least one wireless communication performance data pertaining to the wireless communications network,
• wherein at least one of said one or more computer platforms communicates with at least one of said plurality of physical components, and provides at least one of:
• (I) an indication that said at least one wireless communication performance data measured by said at least one measurement device is or is not satisfactory for one or more users of the wireless communications network;
• or
• (II) control signals or instructions for adjusting one or more parameters of one or more of said plurality of physical components distributed within said physical environment.

A method for managing a wireless communications network comprised of a plurality of components distributed within a physical environment, at least one of said plurality of components being used to provide infrastructure necessary for wireless communications, comprising the steps of:

• measuring with at least one measurement device at least one wireless communication performance data pertaining to the wireless communications network;
• and
• providing with one or more computer platforms on which a computerized site specific model of said physical environment is displayed, at least one of:
• (I) an indication that said at least one wireless communication performance data measured by said measurement device is or is not satisfactory in the wireless communications network;
• or
• (II) control signals or instructions for adjusting one or more parameters of one or more of said plurality of components distributed within said physical environment,
• at least one of said one or more computer platforms communicates with at least one of said plurality of components,
• said computerized site specific model presenting on a display a representation of said physical environment with computer representations of said plurality of components distributed in said representation of said physical environment, wherein said computer representations of said plurality of components is associated with at least one of cost data, infrastructure data, maintenance data, ownership data, performance data, installation data, depreciation data, and equipment settings, and information pertaining to said at least one wireless communication performance data in said physical environment.

A network design and management method for a wireless communications network, comprising the steps of:

• designing or modifying, on one or more computer platforms, a computerized site specific model which presents on a display a representation of a physical environment in which said wireless communications network has or will be deployed, with computer representations of a plurality of components distributed in said representation of said physical environment, wherein one or more of said plurality of components represented in said computerized site specific model has at least one of cost data, infrastructure data, maintenance data, ownership data, performance data, installation data, depreciation data, and equipment settings associated therewith;
• distributing a plurality of physical components within said physical environment represented by said computerized site specific model, at least some of said plurality of physical components corresponding to at least some of said plurality of components represented in said computerized site specific model, at least one of said plurality of physical components being used to provide infrastructure for wireless communications;
• measuring with at least one measurement device at least one wireless communication performance data pertaining to the performance experienced by one or more users in the wireless communications network;
• and
• providing with at least one of said one or more computer platforms at least one of:
• (I) an indication that said at least one wireless communication performance data measured by said measurement device is or is not satisfactory for one or more users of the wireless communications network;
• or
• (II) control signals or instructions for adjusting one or more parameters of one or more of said plurality of physical components distributed within said physical environment, and
• at least one of said one or more computer platforms communicates with at least one of said plurality of physical components.

A wireless network asset management method, comprising the steps of:

• storing, sending, or retrieving information pertaining to at least two different distributed networks of infrastructure equipment, said information being selected from a group consisting of installation data, performance data, cost data, depreciation data, ownership data, infrastructure information, and maintenance data;
• and
• selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating, or analyzing selected information from said at least two different distributed networks,
• wherein each of said distributed networks of infrastructure equipment is represented in a site-specific computer database model having computer representations of physical locations and interconnections of the infrastructure equipment stored therein, and
• wherein said performance data comprises performance data selected from the group consisting of frequency utilization, capacity utilization, received signal strength, signal-to-interference ratio, signal-to-noise ratio, bit error rate, loading, capacity, frame error rate, frame resolution per second, traffic, packet error rate, packet latency, packet jitter, interference levels, power levels, outage statistics, failure rate, quality of service, consumption and fluctuation, production levels, storage cycles, cycle time.

A method of generating a computerized model of an environment, said environment including both terrain and at least one building, wherein said terrain surrounds said at least one building, said terrain including a plurality of different objects and features therein, each of which has attributes that impact performance of a distributed network, and said at least one building having a plurality of different objects therein, each of which has attributes that impact performance of said distributed network, comprising the steps of:

• obtaining a terrain model for said terrain, said terrain model being represented by a triangular irregular network;
• obtaining a building model of said at least one building, said building model being in a vector format compatible with said triangular irregular network;
• combining said terrain model and said building model to form a composite three dimensional terrain-building representation, said combining step positioning said building model within said terrain model such that outer edges of said building are positioned within said terrain;
• and
• providing one or more of wireless performance predictions or measurements, or comparisons thereof for wireless communications networks operating both within and outside of buildings.

A system for generating a computerized model of an environment, said environment including both terrain and at least one building, wherein said terrain surrounds said at least one building, said terrain including a plurality of different terrain features therein, each of which has attributes that impact performance of a distributed network, and said at least one building having a plurality of different objects therein, each of which has attributes that impact performance of the distributed network, said system comprising:

• means for obtaining a terrain model for said terrain, said terrain model being represented by a triangular irregular network;
• means for obtaining a building model of said at least one building, said building model being in a vector format compatible with said triangular irregular network;
• and
• means for combining said terrain model and said building model to form a composite three dimensional terrain-building representation, wherein said building positioned within said terrain.

A wireless network asset management system, comprising:

• means for storing, sending, or retrieving information pertaining to at least two different distributed networks of infrastructure equipment, said information being selected from the group consisting of installation data, performance data, infrastructure information, ownership data, cost data, depreciation data, and maintenance data, wherein said performance data includes at least two of predicted performance data, desired performance data, and measured performance data.;
• and
• means for selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating, or analyzing selected information from said at least two different distributed networks,
• wherein each of said distributed networks of infrastructure equipment is represented in a site-specific computer database model having computer representations of physical locations and interconnections of the infrastructure equipment stored therein.

A wireless network asset management method, comprising the steps of:

• storing, sending, or retrieving one or more of predicted and measured information pertaining to a distributed network of infrastructure equipment, said one or more of predicted and measured information being selected from the group consisting of cost data, maintenance data, installation data, depreciation data, performance data, and ownership data;
• selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating, or analyzing selected information from said distributed network;
• and
• comparing said predicted information and said measured information, wherein said distributed network of infrastructure equipment is represented in a site-specific computer database model having computer representations of physical locations and interconnections of the infrastructure equipment stored therein.

A wireless network asset management system, comprising:

• means for storing, sending, or retrieving one or more of predicted and measured information pertaining to a distributed network of infrastructure equipment, said one or more of predicted and measured information being selected from the group consisting of cost data, maintenance data, performance data, and ownership data;
• means for selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating, or analyzing selected information from said distributed network;
• and
• means for comparing said predicted information and said measured information, wherein said distributed network of infrastructure equipment is represented in a site-specific computer database model having computer representations of physical locations and interconnections of the infrastructure equipment stored therein.

An infrastructure management tool for wireless communications networks, comprising:

• one or more site specific computerized models which represent one or more physical environments, said one or more site specific computerized models includes a representation of a plurality of distributed components that are at least a part of a wireless communications network distributed within a physical environment, said one or more site specific computerized models includes one or more of predicted and measured information selected from the group consisting of cost data, maintenance data, performance data, and ownership data;
• means for identifying criteria to be searched in said one or more site specific computerized models;
• and
• means for applying replacement criteria to replace identified criteria identified by said means for identifying,
• wherein said plurality of distributed components is graphically and electronically represented within said one or more site specific computerized models of the physical environment in a site-specific manner.

An infrastructure management method for wireless communication networks, comprising the steps of:

• providing access to one or more site specific computerized models which represent one or more physical environments, said one or more site specific computerized models includes a representation of a plurality of distributed components that are at least a part of a wireless communications network distributed within a physical environment, said one or more site specific computerized models includes one or more of predicted and measured information selected from the group consisting of cost data, maintenance data, performance data, and ownership data;
• identifying criteria to be searched in said one or more site specific computerized models;
• and
• applying replacement criteria to replace identified criteria identified by said identifying step,
• wherein said plurality of distributed components is graphically and electronically represented within said one or more site specific computerized models of the physical environment in a site-specific manner.