Methods and apparatus to scan a wireless communication spectrum
AssigneeThe Nielsen Company (US), LLC
InventorDominic H. Ngai
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus are disclosed to scan a wireless communication spectrum. An example method disclosed herein includes causing a first scanner to determine, for a frequency of a wireless communication spectrum, a decoded base station identifier, causing a second scanner to determine a plurality of signal strengths at the frequency without determining a base station identifier, and determining that the base station identifier is associated with a subset of the plurality of signal strengths by comparing at least one of timestamps and locations associated with the base station identifier and the plurality of signal strengths.
Claims27
A method comprising:
- detecting with a first scanner scanning at a first rate a base station identifier for a frequency of a wireless communication spectrum;
- detecting with a second scanner scanning at a second rate, different from the first rate, a plurality of signal strengths of signals at the frequency without determining a base station identifier;
- and
- determining that the base station identifier is associated with a subset of the plurality of signal strengths by comparing at least one of times and physical locations at which the base station identifier and the plurality of signal strengths were detected.
An apparatus comprising:
- a first scanner to scan a frequency of a wireless communication spectrum at a first rate to identify a base station identifier;
- a second scanner to scan the frequency at a second rate different from the first rate to determine a plurality of signal strengths;
- and
- a correlator to determine that the base station identifier is associated with a subset of the plurality of signal strengths by comparing at least one of timestamps and physical locations of the first and second scanners when the base station identifier and the plurality of signal strengths were detected.
A machine readable storage medium comprises instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
- cause a first scanner scanning at a first rate to detect a base station identifier for a frequency of a wireless communication spectrum;
- cause a second scanner scanning at a second rate, different from the first rate, to detect a plurality of signal strengths of signals at the frequency without determining a base station identifier;
- and
- determine that the base station identifier is associated with a subset of the plurality of signal strengths by comparing at least one of times and physical locations at which the base station identifier and the plurality of signal strengths were detected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.