Method and system for analyzing radio performance during over-the-air operation

An apparatus for determining operating characteristics of and for identifying failed or suspect radio-frequency (RF) transmitting devices while the radio-frequency transmitting devices are in normal operation transmitting over-the-air RF signals each including an identifier of the transmitting device, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one RF signal sensor receiving the RF signals from at least one of the radio-frequency transmitting devices that are mobile or portable, the at least one sensor responsive to the received RF signals;
• an analyzer:
• measuring signal parameters of the received RF signals and determining operating characteristics of the transmitting devices from the signal parameters;
• determining at least one of waveform visualization information and bit-field visualization information of the received RF signals from the at least one transmitting device;
• determining the respective identifier of the at least one transmitting device from the received RF signals;
• using the identifier from the received RF signals to correlate operating characteristics to the particular one of the transmitting devices;
• and
• collecting operating characteristics for identified transmitting devices more frequently than operating characteristics for other transmitting devices;
• and
• a graphical user interface displaying the operating characteristics for each identified transmitting device and displaying at least one of the waveform visualization information and bit-field visualization information in a form that can be used to identify transmitting devices that have failed and transmitting devices that are suspect.