HK1056030A

HK1056030A - System and method for efficiently visualizing and comparing communication network system performance

Info

Publication number: HK1056030A
Application number: HK03108348.9A
Authority: HK
Inventors: 西奥多S‧拉帕波特; 布赖恩T‧戈尔德; 罗杰R‧斯基德莫尔
Original assignee: 无线谷通讯有限公司
Priority date: 2000-08-04
Filing date: 2001-07-27
Publication date: 2004-01-30

Description

System and method for efficiently observing and comparing performance of communication network systems

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to engineering and management systems for wireless and wireline communication system design, and more particularly to a method for comparing wireless and wireline system performance using a 3D visualization method in any environment (e.g., buildings, floors in buildings, campuses, cities, outdoors, etc.).

Background

With the proliferation of communication systems, Radio Frequencies (RF) are overlapped inside and around buildings, and radio signals penetrate inside and outside buildings, which is a critical design issue for communication engineers who must design and configure cellular telephone systems, paging systems, or new wireless technologies such as Personal Communication Systems (PCS), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), and Local Multipoint Distribution Systems (LMDS). Emerging handheld devices will increase the use of wireless access methods, necessitating the use of tools and methods that allow technicians and engineers to quickly install such wireless infrastructure. At the same time, optical and baseband networks that must carry internet traffic will also grow rapidly in the future. In addition, the rapid growth in optical bandwidth of fiber optics has increased interest in RF networks including micro-devices, RF identification tags and optical communication links due to the rapid miniaturization of communication devices and sensors in and around campuses. Designers often need to determine whether a wireless transceiver location or a base station cellular location can provide suitable, reliable service throughout a room, building, city, campus, shopping mall, or any other environment. The cost of in-building and microcellular wireless communication devices is decreasing and the workload on wireless system design engineers and technicians to configure such systems is increasing substantially. Due to these factors, rapid engineering and configuration methods coupled with integrated system performance visualization and analysis methods are critical to wireless communication system designers.

Furthermore, recent research work by AT & T Laboratories, Brooklyn biotechnic, and Virginia Tech describes in the form of articles and technical reports named: kim, b.j.guarino, jr., t.m.willis III, v.erceg, s.j.forture, r.a.valenzuela, l.w.thomas, j.ling, and j.d.moore, "Radio Propagation Measurements and predictions Using Three-dimensional velocity transformation in u.sub. environment 908 MHZ and 1.9 GHz", IEEE Transactions on vessel technology, volume 48, phase 3, 5 months 1999 (hereinafter "Radio Propagation"); L.Piazzi, H.L.Bertoni, "Achievable Acuracy of Site-Specific Path-Loss Predictions in Pesitional Environments", IEEE Transactionson temporal Technology, volume 48, No. 3, 5 months 1999 (hereinafter, "Site-Specific"); G.Durgin, T.S.Rappaport, H.xu, "Measurementsand Models for Radio Path Loss and peptides Loss In and around homes and Trees at 5.85 GHz", volume IEEE Transactions on communications.46, No. 11, month 11 of 1998; (ii) T.S. Rappaport, M.P.Koushik, J.C.Liberti, C.Pendyala, and T.P.Subramranian, "Radiopropagation Prediction Techniques and Computer-Aided channel modeling for Embedded Wireless systems", ARPA annular Report, MPRG Technical Report MPRG-TR-94-12, Virginia Tech, 1994 month 7; T.S. Rappaport, M.P.Koushik, C.Carter, and M.Ahmed, "Radio Production prediction technologies and Computer-air Channel model for Embedded Wireless systems", MPRG Technical Report MPRG-TR-95-08, Virginia Tech, month 7 1994; (ii) t.s.rappport, m.p.koushik, m.ahmed, c.carter, b.newhall, r.skidmore and n.zhang, "Use of Topographic Maps with Building Information to terminate analysis platform for Radio Detection and Tracking in u rban Environment", MPRG Technical Report MPRG-TR-95-19, Virginia Tech, month 11 1995; and S.Sandhu, M.P.Koushik, and T.S.Rappaport, "compressed Path Loss for Rossslyn, VA, Second set of representations for ORD Project on Site specific Prediction", MPRG Technical Report MPRG-TR-95-03, Virginia Tech, month 3 1995.

Papers and technical reports illustrate the state of the art in site-specific radio wave propagation models. Most of the above papers describe the comparison of measured versus predicted RF signal overlap ranges and propose a list or two-dimensional method for presenting and displaying the predicted data, none of which give a comprehensive method for visualizing and analyzing the performance of the wireless system. The "radio wave propagation" and "site specific" papers refer to 3-D models, but do not provide novel display methods or graphical techniques to allow a user to visually observe overlapping ranges or disturbances of signals in3-D form. Furthermore, there is no efficient way to allow wireless communication technicians or designers to quickly display predictive values, or compare differences in predictive values between network design concepts alternating in a particular environment by visual inspection.

Common to all wireless communication system designs and wired network designs is a desire to optimize system performance and stability and minimize configuration costs. A method of minimizing expense includes managing the use of computer-aided design tools for many aspects of the design process. Such tools may also assist in generating methods so that engineers or technicians can work quickly. Consider, for example, a wireless system. Analyzing wireless signal overlap range and interference is one of the most critical of a number of reasons. The design engineer must determine: whether the environment selected by the wireless system contains too much noise or interference or whether an existing wireless system will provide sufficient signal power throughout the desired service area. Alternatively, the wireless engineer must determine: existing large scale outdoor wireless systems or macrocells are able to supplement local area overlap sufficiently or if indoor radio transceivers or picocells must be added. These cell arrangements are determined from cost and performance standpoints. The design engineer must predict how much interference from other wireless systems can be expected and where in this environment. It has been documented in the literature that predictive methods known to the inventors provide some good acceptable method for calculating the overlap range or interference values for many situations. However, the implementation of such models is often very crude and relies on cumbersome spreadsheet or inefficient operating platforms with little support and viewing capability in the research room. Inevitably, in order to generate a normal predictive model, performance measurements must be made in the environment of interest, or at least to verify that the predictive model selected has acceptable accuracy and stability.

Depending on design goals, the performance of a wireless communication system may include a combination of one or more factors. For example, the total area of suitable received signal length (RSSI) overlap, the area of suitable data throughput level overlap, the number of users served by the system are among the determining factors that are used by design engineers to design the layout of the communication devices that make up the wireless system. Thus, optimizing the performance of a wireless system may involve a complex analysis of a number, potentially unrelated, factors. The ability to display the results of such analysis in a form that is easily interpreted by design engineers is invaluable in wireless system configurations. Three-dimensional (3-D) visualization of wireless system operating parameters provides users with rapid assimilation of large data sets and their relationship to the physical environment. With the proliferation of wireless systems, these issues must be addressed quickly, easily, and inexpensively in a systematic, repeatable manner.

There are many Computer Aided Design (CAD) products on the market that can be used to design computerized models of an environment. WiSE from Lucent Technology Inc^TMSignalPro from EDX^TMPLAnet from Mobile Systems International, Inc. (later called Metapath Software International, now part of Marconi, P.L.C.)^TMAnd TEMS from Ericsson, Wizard by Safco Technologies, now part of agilent Technologies, is an example of a CAD product developed to aid in the design of wireless communication systems.

Lucent Technology Inc. offers WiSE^TMAs a design tool for wireless communication systems. The WiSE system predicts the performance of the wireless communication system based on a computer model of the given environment using well-known ray tracing deterministic radio wave overlap range prediction techniques.

EDX provides SignalPro^TMAs a wireless communication system design tool. SignalPro^TMThe system predicts the performance of the wireless communication system based on a computer model of the given environment using well-known ray tracing deterministic RF power prediction techniques.

Mobile Systems International, now part of Marconi, P.L.C., supplies PLANET^TMAs a wireless communication system design tool. The PLAnet system predicts the performance of a macrocell wireless communication system based on a computer model of a given environment using statistical and empirical prediction techniques.

TEMS is provided by Ericsson Radio Quality Information Systems^TMAs a design and validation tool for wireless communication indoor overlays. TEMS predicts the performance of an indoor wireless communication system based on a building map with input base transceiver locations using an empirical radio wave overlap model.

The design tools described above assist wireless system designers by providing a means of predicting the performance of a wireless communication system and displaying the results in the form of a flat, two-dimensional colored square or flat, two-dimensional outline area. Such displays, while useful, are limited by their two-dimensional nature in conveying nuances of wireless system performance. For example, slight variations in color are represented by two-dimensional color squares that can represent variations in the performance of the wireless system that need to be addressed and are easily ignored. Furthermore, as wireless systems proliferate, the ability to visually predict and design overlapping ranges and interference has ever increasing value.

Common to all communication system designs, regardless of technology, size or scale, is the need to measure data at some point in the design process. For the environment of wireless communication system candidates, it is essential to first perform a measurement action to determine the spectral occupancy, noise level, interference level, or available channel.

A communication system is not capable of performing despite the absence of input and use of measurement data during an initial design phase or a final verification phase, or during ongoing maintenance within the life cycle of the communication system. However, acquisition of measurements in an environment within a building is more tedious and time consuming than acquisition of measurements in a macrocell environment where measurement acquisition is accomplished using global positioning system data to determine measurement locations. Global Positioning System (GPS) data, by which many RF engineers rely for outdoor measurement acquisition, is in many cases not an option for microcellular environments and is difficult to use stably within buildings due to clutter and resultant attenuation of GPS satellite signal levels within urban areas and within man-made buildings. While new methods, such as the Qualcom Snap Track indoor GPS system, may provide long-term assurance of in-building location, current, immediately available GPS solutions are expensive and rarely used by engineers or technicians in configuring, measuring or optimizing in-building or microcellular networks. Thus, including temporary recording and design blueprints, which are expensive and inefficient in many respects, and manual data entry, recording real-time measurement data within a building becomes a laborious and time-consuming task.

In addition to measuring the RF signal properties from a transmitting base radio transceiver, it is also desirable to measure the data throughput time in a computer data network. Throughput time is the time to transfer a record or file of known size from one computer to another. To standardize the measurement of data throughput time for comparison or verification purposes, a file of a set size (e.g., 100K) is used and transmitted in a packet size such as 512 bits. Like RF signal attenuation, data throughput time, each of a number of other important network measurement parameters, such as packet latency, bit error rate, packet error rate, and bit rate throughput, are also functions of transmission distance and signal obstructions (e.g., walls, gates, partitions), as well as multipath propagation and specific modem design.

Currently, there is no known effective visual observation technique that allows engineers or wireless technicians to visually display measurement results or to quickly compare them, as specific to time, frequency, or space of interestA particular communication network or a collection of networks in a particular environment. Various signal property measurement acquisition tools and systems have been developed to facilitate such as PenCat^TM，Walkabout PCS^TMAnd TEMS Light.

PenCat provided by LCC International Inc^TMAs a collection and analysis tool for light pen input, for wireless communication designs running on small handheld input pad computers. PenCat^TMThe system enables a user to roam a building, obtain signal property measurement data at a location in the building using a receiver connected to an input pad computer, and link the measured data to a building location on a computer map representing the building by tapping the appropriate portion of the map on the computer screen using a light pen. The building map may be input to PenCat by scanning the plan, sketching the applied building, or using other source input^TMIn a system. PenCat uses a two-dimensional bitmap to simulate a building environment. Safco technologies Inc. (now part of Agilent technologies Inc.) offers Walkabout PCS^TMThe system is used as a portable measuring overlapping range system for indoor or outdoor wireless communication system design. And PenCat^TMSimilarly, Walkabout PCS^TMThe system uses a handheld computer connected to a receiver for measuring signal properties at a given location, linking the measured property data to locations represented on a stored computer map. Also, similar to Safco Walkabout, the Agilent74XX indoor measurement system also uses a bitmap building plan. The Ericsson wireless quality information system provides the TEMS Light system as a verification tool for the overlapping range in a wireless communication room. The TEMS Light system utilizes a window-based graphical interface in which a mobile computer connected to the receiver is painted with a two-dimensional bitmap allowing the user to view a stored building map, make location-specific data measurements, and link the measurement data to locations represented on the stored computer. Unlike other indoor communication measurement systems, InF designed by Wireless Valley communications corporationielder^TMThe measurement data is fused with periodic updates of locations located on the three-dimensional model of the physical environment. InFielder^TMProduct concepts have been disclosed in U.S. patent application No.09/221,985(1998, filed on date 12 and 29). The contents of this application are incorporated herein by reference. However, in the above-mentioned patent application InFielder^TMThe original disclosure does not provide an effective method for quickly observing and comparing measurements in a 3D environment so that the measurements, the comparison of measurements can be quickly determined and inferred by the user.

Summary of The Invention

It is therefore an object of the present invention to facilitate the display of predicted performance results and the display of comparisons between predicted performance results in wireless or wired communication systems.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for the display of predicted performance results and the display of comparisons between predicted performance results for wireless or wireline communication systems.

It is another object of the present invention to facilitate three-dimensional, multi-color display of predicted performance outcomes and comparisons between predicted performance outcomes for any type of wireless or wireline communication system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for viewing a three-dimensional display of predicted performance outcomes and comparisons between the predicted performance outcomes from any angle, direction, distance, or point of view.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for viewing a three-dimensional display of predicted performance outcomes and comparisons between the predicted performance outcomes, interacting with a real-time display, changing the current viewpoint and viewpoint.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a display of the predicted performance outcomes and comparisons between the predicted performance outcomes overlaid on a three-dimensional database that may include a plurality of building structures, and surrounding terrain, vegetation, climate conditions, additional static and dynamic obstacles (e.g., automobiles, people, archival cabinets, etc.).

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for reproducing a stereoscopic representation of the three-dimensional display using various colors and transparency effects, using color, shading, or other rendering methods.

In addition to the above, it is another object of the present invention to facilitate the display of measurements and comparisons between measurement performance results for wireless or wireline communication systems.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for displaying measurements and displaying comparisons between measurement performance results for wireless or wired communication systems.

It is another object of the present invention to facilitate three-dimensional, multi-color display of measurements and comparisons between measurement performance results for any type of wireless or wireline communication system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for viewing a three-dimensional representation of a measurement and a comparison between the results of the measurement performance from any angle, direction, distance or viewpoint.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for viewing a three-dimensional display of measurements and comparisons between measurement performance results, interacting with a real-time display, changing the current viewpoint and viewpoint.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a display of the measured performance results and comparisons between the measured performance results overlaid on a three-dimensional database that may include a plurality of building structures, and surrounding terrain, vegetation, weather conditions, additional static and dynamic obstacles (e.g., cars, people, filing cabinets, etc.).

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for reproducing a stereoscopic representation of the three-dimensional display using a plurality of colors and transparency effects, using color, shading, or other rendering methods.

In addition to the above, it is another object of the present invention to facilitate comparison between predicted and measured performance results of a wireless or wireline communication system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for displaying a comparison between predicted and measured performance results of a wireless or wireline communication system.

It is another object of the present invention to facilitate a three-dimensional, multi-color display of a comparison between predicted and measured performance results for any type of wireless or wireline communication system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for viewing a three-dimensional display of a comparison between predicted and measured performance results from any angle, direction, distance or perspective.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for viewing a three-dimensional display of the comparison between predicted and measured performance results, interacting with a real-time display, changing the current viewpoint and viewpoint.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a display of the comparison between the predicted and measured performance results overlaid on a three-dimensional database that may include a plurality of building structures, and surrounding terrain, vegetation, weather conditions, additional static and dynamic obstacles (e.g., cars, people, filing cabinets, etc.).

In accordance with the present invention, a system is provided that allows an RF system designer or communication network designer to dynamically electronically simulate wired or wireless systems of any environment. The method includes selecting and placing (arranging) models of various wireless or optical or baseband communication system hardware components, such as antennas (point, omni-directional, leaky, distributed, etc.), base stations, base station controllers, transceivers, amplifiers, cables, splitters, attenuators, repeaters, wireless access points, couplers, connectors, junction boxes, splicers, switches, routers, hubs, transducers, transformers (such as devices that convert between RF and optical frequencies, or between RF and baseband frequencies, or between baseband and optical frequencies, devices that transform energy from one part of the electromagnetic spectrum to another), power cables, twisted pair cables, optical fibers, etc., allowing users to observe in3-D the effects of these placements and movements on overall system performance throughout the simulated environment. Thus, prior to actual implementation of the system or network, component placement may be accurate and coordinated, where performance prediction models or measurements may be used for design and configuration, assuring that the desired ranges for all desired service areas are overlapped with sufficient connectivity, RF overlap, data traffic, or possibly other desired network system performance values, such as quality of service (QoS), packet error rate, packet throughput, packet latency, bit error rate, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR), signal strength or RSSI, RMS delay spread, distortion, and other known or unknown common measures of performance for the communication network, may be measured or predicted, and may be used to assist engineers in the normal installation, setup, or maintenance of the wired or wireless communication system. For example, in the case of optical or baseband wired networks, the placement and performance of components can be observed in the present invention, ensuring the proper location of the environment being served so that users in that environment can connect directly (using a hardware connection) or through wireless or infrared connections throughout the wired network using transducers, converters, wireless access points and other communication components that facilitate frequency conversion and wireless access from the wired system. Three-dimensional visualization of the performance of the system provides RF and network system designers with a greater understanding of the functionality of a simulated wireless or wired system, representing a significant improvement over previous visualization techniques.

To implement the above, a 3-D model of the physical environment is stored in the electronic database in the form of a CAD model. Physical, electrical, and aesthetic parameters and other wired components belonging to various parts of the environment such as walls, floors, foliage, buildings, mountains, and other obstacles that affect radio waves or block and indicate wiring paths are stored in a database. A representation of the 3-D environment is displayed on the screen of the computer so that it can be viewed by the designer. The designer can view the entire environment of the simulated 3-D, the magnification of individual areas of interest, or the dynamically viewed position and viewpoint, creating a "fly through" effect. Using a mouse or other input pointing device, a designer may select and view various communication hardware device models representing actual communication system components from a series of drop-down menus. The various amplifiers, cables, connectors, and other devices described above that make up any wired or wireless communication system or network may be selected, located, and interconnected by the designer in a similar manner to form a representation of the entire wireless or wired communication system.

In the present invention, the designer may run performance prediction calculations, measure actual performance characteristics in the environment, or collect performance data using some other known or unknown method. The novelty of the current method and apparatus is that the measurements are displayed using a 3-D visualization method suitable for use in a 3-D model of the physical environment, the comparison of the measurement comparisons and the predicted performance results, so that an engineer or technician can quickly determine the meaning or importance of the measurement or measurement comparison or performance result comparison by observing the display in the electronic model of the environment where each measurement or measurement comparison or performance result comparison is collected or computed at the approximate or exact location shown.

The method of the present invention additionally provides a means for viewing a 3-D icon view of the predictive performance values. Using a cylinder or other shaped object of varying height and color, the present invention allows complex performance data to be quickly viewed at multiple points, referred to as "watch points" in a selected environment. The present invention exceeds the prior art in this respect, allowing designers to quickly overlay 3-D performance data views onto environmental models.

The present invention additionally creates a new method and system that provides a way to easily view individual measurement monitoring points to quickly infer meaning, as well as to conveniently view and quickly infer the distinguishing meaning between measurement operations collected in the same 3-D environment using the same or different communication network designs. The measurement operation is a series of measurements, typically performed by a technician or engineer in an environment (such as a city, town, campus, group of buildings, or building of interest), although such measurements may be performed by non-skilled persons, and may even be performed remotely or autonomously (e.g., by using measurement devices, some technicians walking in a physical environment, each equipped with a measurement device, and optionally making measurements, where the measurements are all shared; as described in detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/, ________________________________________________, entitled "System, Method for Portable Design, Deployment, network and timing of communication, incorporated herein by reference).

The invention supports rapid viewing and display for comparing performance data collected from multiple sources, which may be performed as described above between two or more different sets of measurements performed in the same 3-D environment of interest. However, the comparison may also be between two or more sets of network system performance predictions that are calculated, displayed, or stored for later display. The present invention creates a new method and system for providing a way to quickly observe the differences between different network system performance predictions collected in the same 3-D environment using similar or different communication network designs in a common environmental model.

In addition to the above considerations, the present invention provides a means for displaying the difference between measured and predicted data in a convenient form that allows clear insight into the actual and predicted performance in any communications network. Based on the above teachings, it is clear that in order to provide a record of measured and predicted values, the measured data and predicted data may be displayed in a 3-D environment and may overlap each other in space. As such, it is possible to compare the measurement operation with the prediction operation as long as the measurements are collected at a point that is specified as the location of the desired prediction engine output. Those of ordinary skill in the art may be trained in data processing and error analysis, and will understand that the novel observation techniques apply as such to: a) measurement data, b) comparison of measurement data, c) comparison of prediction data, may also be used for comparison between measurement and prediction data. Using this new observation method described later, comparing the measured versus predicted values provides great assistance to the engineer, who seeks to develop, optimize and use the most accurately implemented prediction models in a particular physical environment.

The comparison of data points between the prediction and measurement operations, or between the prediction and measurement operations, may be accomplished in several ways. The data sets may be compared on a simple discriminative basis, wherein the data point values at a first operation (located at a particular location in the environmental database) are subtracted from the data points at a second operation at the same respective location. Of course, the deduction command may be reversed if required. Other methods of comparing data include calculating the logarithmic ratio of two values at the same location point, in decibel (dB) difference. Alternatively, the relative value of the maximum or best value having the maximum value (100 or 1) is considered, and the smaller value is displayed as a value less than the maximum value. The lower than maximum rating may be calculated and displayed as a normal value, or a percentage, or a comparison with a maximum value.

One difficulty in comparing measured data to predicted data, or comparing measurements or predictions at different grid scales or data base resolutions, is that the same corresponding location between the two data sets is not tractable, for example, due to inaccuracies in the recorded location information of the field measurements and the simulated environmental location in the predictions. In this case, the nearest neighbors to the selected point, or any selection technique from a cluster of nearest neighbors, may be used to determine the appropriate points in each operation to compare with each other. Alternatively, an averaging method may be used, with the local points of each data set being compared averaged over a small local area, and the resulting values from each set being compared at the actual location points that share the small area occupied by the points averaged over each data set. This is called "local averaging", and the average and variance of the local average of data for a particular operation can be extrapolated to statistics. These statistics may be compared and the difference between the statistics of each of the two operations compared may be displayed. There are many other comparison methods that may be used to compare the values of two sets, whether such methods are known or unknown, and such comparison methods are contemplated for use in the present invention.

Some data sets may be insufficient to compare with other data for comparison. In this case, the display device needs to show that the comparison at a particular 3-D location point cannot be performed due to the loss of data from one or both data sets.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention allows such comparisons to be observed using a variety of methods. Based on the concept disclosed in pending application 09/318,840, entitled "Method and System for automated optimization of Antenna Positioning in 3-D", the present invention allows for the use of one or more locations in space as "monitoring points", where comparisons are stored as part of a 3-D computer database and viewed on a display screen. The display of the monitoring points may display the comparison data in two-dimensional form using color, shape and/or text, or in three-dimensional form using height, color, shape and/or text.

In addition to observations at one or more monitoring points, the present invention allows vertex meshes indicative of comparison data to be used, overlaid on top of any size or shape region selected.

The computer displays comparative data indicating changes in RF performance values, such as Received Signal Strength (RSSI), network traffic, packet latency, packet error rate, quality of service (QoS), bit error rate, frame error rate, signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), at each cell vertex of the screen, as provided by the communication system being designed. Such that the computer adjusts the height and/or color, including characteristics such as saturation, hue, brightness, line type and width, transparency, surface texture, etc., of each vertex relative to surrounding vertices, to correspond to the comparison of the calculated RF performance values. The color and height may correspond to the same calculated comparison value or to different variations in the calculated comparison value. For example, height may correspond to a comparison between Received Signal Strength (RSSI), color may correspond to a comparison between signal to noise ratio (SNR), or any other of a variety of calculated RF parameters. The user can specify the boundaries for display based on the height selected, the color or other range of aesthetic characteristics of the mesh vertex assignments. Alternatively, the system can automatically select limits and ranges for height, color, and other aesthetic characteristics. The result is that the areas of color and height variation represent varying comparisons between wireless system performance throughout different portions of the simulated 3-D environment. The regions may be viewed as an overlay of the 3-D environment.

Drawings

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a concise layout of a floor plan of a building;

FIG. 2 shows a 3D perspective view of a floor plan of a building;

FIG. 3 shows a 3D rendering of a series of performance value comparisons;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a region that has been partitioned into a grid that has been selected by an RF designer for displaying wireless communication system performance;

FIG. 5 shows a region of 3D perspective, similar to the region of FIG. 4, before comparing wireless system performance;

FIG. 6 shows an example of a 3D display of system performance according to the present invention for a region after comparing computed wireless system performance;

FIG. 7 shows the same area as FIG. 6, with the user reducing the relative elevation of the vertices, thereby changing the display condition;

FIG. 8 shows the same area as FIG. 7, with the user dimming the display, producing a perspective view of the performance result with changes; and

FIG. 9 shows the same area as FIG. 6 with the user changing visual direction, generating a different perspective of performance results;

FIG. 10 shows a flow chart describing a process of comparing performance prediction results;

FIG. 11 shows a flow chart describing a process of comparing performance predictions and measurements;

FIG. 12 shows a flow chart depicting the operation of comparing multiple measurement properties;

FIG. 13 illustrates a 3D iconic display of predicted performance data representing overlapping 3D physical environments, an

FIG. 14 illustrates a 3D iconic display of measurement data representing overlapping 3D physical environments.

Detailed Description

Using the present method it is possible to evaluate the performance of the communication system to a higher level of accuracy than previously possible. A significant advance of the method of the present invention over the prior art is the display of the predicted performance of the communication system. The design of a communication system is often a complex and laborious task requiring a great deal of work, enabling simple analysis of the results of the system performance.

In the prior art, only a single performance prediction can be analyzed at once. That is, communication systems have been designed without a straightforward way to quickly visualize and compare the advantages between one communication network topology or another with hardware components. In the present invention, a system is described in which two or more predictions may be compared to analyze the advantages or disadvantages between designs, models, or other factors.

The invention also allows measurements to be made and the results compared to predicted performance data for analysis. In the prior art, there are some embodiments available for comparing measured and predicted data sets. However, most do not have a visual comparison, and those packages that are currently available to display a visual comparison between measurements and predictions are only 2-D. That is, until the present invention, there was no way to make a complete visual comparison of communication networks in 3-D.

Several methods are described that enable visual comparisons between predicted or measured communication system performance values. In all cases, the described visual observations may be applied to measurements, predictions, comparisons between prediction models, comparisons of predictions for different communication systems, comparisons between predicted and measured data, comparisons between different measured data sets, or comparisons between other data now known or in the future.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a simple example of a two-dimensional (2-D) floor plan layout of a building is shown. The method uses 3-D Computer Aided Design (CAD) to reproduce the building, or building complex, and/or surrounding terrain and vegetation. However, for simplicity of illustration, 2-D graphics are used. Various physical objects in the environment, such as exterior walls, interior walls and floors, are assigned suitable physical, electrical and aesthetic values. For example, the outside may be given a 10dB attenuation loss, the signal may be assigned a 3dB attenuation loss through the interior walls, and the window may show a 2dB RF penetration loss. In addition to attenuation, the obstruction is assigned other properties, including reflectivity and surface roughness.

Figure 2 depicts a 3D perspective view of a floor plan of a building. Referring to fig. 2, there are several partition walls within a building, including an exterior concrete wall and an interior asbestos cement panel wall.

The estimated insulation electrical performance loss value can be extracted from published extensive propagation measurements, which are deduced from field experience, or the insulation loss for a particular target can be measured directly and immediately optimized using the present invention in combination with those methods described in pending application No.09/221,985, entitled "System for Creating a computer model and measuring Database of a Wireless communication network", filed by t.s. Once the appropriate physical and electrical parameters are specified, any desired number of RF source hardware components may be placed into the 3-D building database and predicted RF performance values may be obtained, such as Received Signal Strength (RSSI), network throughput, packet latency, packet error rate, quality of service (QoS), bit or frame error rate, chip energy-to-interference ratio (Ec/Io), or carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I). Of course, other well known parameters of wireless or wireline communication systems, now known or known in the future, may be used for the appropriate prediction values. A preferred method for generating a 3-D environmental database is disclosed in the pending application (application No.09/318,841, filed 26/5 1999). The resulting determination uses a vector database of a particular format, including lines and polygons representing actual objects in the environment. In the database, the arrangement of lines and polygons corresponds to the actual objects in the environment. For example, a line or other shape in the database may represent a wall, a door, a tree, a building wall, or some other physical object in the simulated environment.

From the perspective of radio wave transmission, each obstacle/partition (i.e., each line or polygon in the figure) in an environment affects the electromagnetic performance of radio waves. When a radio wave signal traverses an actual surface, it interacts with the electromagnetic properties of the surface. A certain percentage of the radio waves reflect off the surface and continue along the altered trajectory; a certain percentage of the radio waves propagate through the surface, proceeding along its course; a certain percentage of the radio waves scatter when they hit the surface, etc. The electromagnetic properties of the obstacles/partitions determine this interaction, which determines the prevention of a certain percentage of the radio waves from acting in a given manner at the point of intersection. From the environmental database, each obstacle/partition has several parameters for determining its electromagnetic performance. For example, the attenuation coefficient of a partition determines the amount of power loss of a wireless signal penetrating it; the reflectivity of the partition determines the portion of the wireless signal it reflects; the surface roughness of the interruptions determines the scattered radio signal fraction at the intersection points.

Once the 3-D environment database is constructed, the designer identifies and specifies the location and type of all wireless communication system devices in the 3-D environment. This point-and-click process includes: selecting a desired hardware component from a computer component database by a user, and then carrying out visual positioning and orientation; and connecting various hardware components in the database of the 3-D environment to form a complete wireless communication system. A preferred embodiment of a computer component database, referred to hereinafter as the component inventory library, is described more fully in the pending patent application (application No.09/318,842, filed on 26.5.1999). Networks of interconnected base station transceivers, cabling, connector/splitters, amplifiers, antennas and other RF hardware components (generally known as wireless distribution or antenna systems) are preferably assembled using drag-and-drop or pick-and-place techniques and graphically overlaid using a 3-D environment database. Each component uses available motor information from a library of component lists that describe the component entirely in terms of physical operating characteristics (e.g., noise figure, frequency, radiation characteristics, etc.). This information is used directly in predicting wireless system performance metrics.

With a full 3-D model of the environment and a wireless communication system placed in the environment, the designer can obtain performance data by running a predictive model over the communication system, collecting RF measurement data from actual bits represented by the model of the environment, or using some other now known or future known method.

In the present invention, the designer may run performance prediction calculations, measure actual performance characteristics in the environment, or collect performance data using some other now known or future known method. The novelty of the present method and apparatus is the display of the measurement, the performance prediction, a comparison of the measurement to the performance prediction, a comparison of two or more predicted performance results, or a comparison of two or more measurements. The 3-D vision method allows an engineer or technician to quickly determine the meaning or importance of the displayed information.

In order to see the performance or performance comparison, several methods are used in the present invention. When two sets of performance data are available, visual observation can be directly performed. That is, statistics such as different or completely different, percentages, ratios such as decibels (dB), or other now known or future known statistics may be used. Given two sets of performance data of equal size, the desired statistical calculations can be performed on each element of the two sets. In the case where one of the data sets is larger than the other, or where both data sets do not include the same spatial element, the comparison calculation is done for elements at the same spatial position in both data sets. Where there is misalignment between the two groups, averaging, nearest neighbor, or random methods may be used to obtain the spatial registration.

The resulting comparison calculation can be seen directly on the 3-D environment database. Using the change in object shape, color, and/or height, the calculation may be viewed as the shape of objects such as cylinders, rectangular prisms, spheres, cubes, or other objects directly in the 3-D environment database, showing performance comparisons. Figure 3 depicts a comparison of performance values where the variation in cylinder height and color is shown in3-D, indicating the difference between the predicted and measured data.

Where a sufficient number of data points are available, a number of vertex meshes, indicating changes in height and/or color, may be overlaid on the 3-D environment database, indicating spatial fluctuations in performance comparisons. Fig. 4 shows an environment database, which has been partitioned into a mesh of vertices. Each vertex corresponds to a comparison data location. FIG. 5 shows a 3-D perspective view of the same environmental database and overlapping grids.

Once the performance comparison is complete, the designer is free to set the display of the results. The displayed results may be displayed on a display screen, printed, or otherwise presented in a 3-D format. The range of values displayed, the color or other aesthetic characteristics such as saturation, chromaticity, brightness, line type and width, transparency, surface texture, etc., associated with each value, may be selectable, or may be automatically adjusted by the system. For example, if a comparison between Received Signal Strengths (RSSIs) is displayed, the user may choose to display only those portions of the region having a different relative RSSI within the range of-20 dBm to 20dBm, and may assign a particular color to correspond to the RSSI values compared within this range. For example, a user may assign a red color to represent a relative RSSI between-20 dBm and-10 dBm, a green color to represent a relative RSSI difference between-9 dBm and 0dBm, and so on. In this way, the regions are displayed as a pattern of undulating colors, where colors are assigned to vertices within the grid, consistent with a certain value of the performance metric for comparison. Fig. 6 depicts a 3-D comparison using changes in elevation and color to indicate differences between communication system performance.

In a similar manner, the vertices or other points of each mesh, which represent performance comparison data points in space, are vertically repositioned into 3-D space. The height of each comparison data point corresponds directly to a certain value of the performance of the comparison. In a preferred form of the invention, user-specified maximum and minimum heights are assigned to the vertices, and the computer automatically scales the height of each comparison data point based on its comparison performance value. For example, if the user selects a minimum height, 0.0 meters, and a maximum height, 20.0 meters, the overall grid comparison performance value ranges from a 20dBm to 20dBm of the RSSI difference comparison. If the comparison data point given has a value of 0dBm, a height of 10.0 meters will be assigned. All heights are specified with respect to the 3-D environment database. FIG. 7 depicts a 3-D comparison that has been reconfigured for better viewing and analysis.

Any combination of height, color, and other aesthetic features may be used to customize the display of the comparative performance results. For example, differences in signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) may be displayed with varying heights within the region, while differences in Received Signal Strength (RSSI) may be displayed with varying colors. The data throughput percentage may be represented in varying colors, and the Bit Error Rate (BER) differentiation may be displayed using different line types. Any combination of height, color, and other aesthetic characteristics may be associated with any combination of comparative performance result metrics, resulting in a 3-D display.

The results of the performance comparison are overlaid or overlaid on the 3-D environmental database, allowing the user to analyze the performance of current wireless communication system designs. The display may be further customized by user interaction. The designer may re-alter the viewing direction and the displayed zoom ratio to obtain a changing perspective of the comparison results. The results may be redisplayed in various forms including a 3-D wireframe with movable hidden lines, a 3-D semi-transparent, a 3-D shadow or pattern, a 3-D rendering, or a 3-D actual photographic rendering. The designer is free to combine the displayed results in a variety of ways, including real-time panning and zooming, to produce a "fly-through" effect. FIG. 8 shows a comparison of system performance where the 3-D display has been appropriately shaded for viewing and analysis purposes. Similarly, fig. 9 shows the same comparison from a different viewpoint. The performance results of the comparison may be saved for subsequent retrieval and redisplay.

Where more than two data sets are available for comparison, a continuous animation of the graphical 3-D comparison results presented between any two groups may be displayed. The designer can control the comparison of the two groups at any time and easily swap through a large number of comparisons.

The present invention creates a new method and system for providing a way to conveniently observe individual measurement points, quickly infer meaning, and conveniently observe and use the same or different communication network designs, quickly infer meaning that differs between measurement operations collected in the same 3-D environment. The measurement operation is a series of measurements, typically performed by a technician or engineer in an environment (such as a city, town, campus, group of buildings, or building of interest), although such measurements may be performed by non-skilled personnel, even remotely or autonomously (e.g., by using measurement devices, by technicians walking in a physical environment, each equipped with a measurement device, optionally with measurements, wherein the measurements are shared in their entirety, as described in U.S. patent application No.09/, Method for stable Design, delivery, Test and Optimization of communication work ", which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety).

We consider that the measurements have a location associated with each measurement using either an automatic or manual method as described in the pending application (application No.09/221,985, 29/12/1998). As will be described later, the present invention enables comparisons and provides a new display for different measurement operations, which may be a collection of measurement points collected from a single communication network at different times of day, and possibly on different days, using the same or different frequencies, using the same or different modes of operation (where the different modes of operation may include one or more of, but are not limited to, different data rates, different packet sizes, different modulation techniques, different power levels, different pseudo-noise code sequences, different pseudo-code chip timing, different optical bands, different network protocols, different bandwidths, different multiple access techniques, different antenna distribution systems, different antenna systems, different cabling configurations, different wiring methods or system distribution methods, different physical connections of system components making up the communication system, or different sources or error correction coding methods), or under different communication load conditions (due to bandwidth variations, user density, or other methods that cause traffic flow or capacity switching times). Alternatively, the measurement operation may be performed in a particular environment in which two or more different communication systems are installed to provide network connectivity in the environment. This is common when one attempts to measure two or more competing wireless service providers in a city or campus setting, or when it is desired to compare two or more different network structures in a particular setting.

As an example, the measurement operation of the wireless indoor system may include a technician using a mobile receiver capable of thoroughly inspecting each floor of the building and measuring signals received from the installed in-building wireless office system. The technician may use a connection to WaveSpy^TMInFielder of scanning receiver^TMA3-D measurement system takes measurements in a 3-D environment of interest, such as RSSI values, through a model of the 3-D environment as it exists in InFielder. The same or a different technician, either simultaneously, on a subsequent day, or under different operating conditions, may again measure the same building. As will be shown later, the present invention provides a new way to display the differences between two or more measurement operations for comparison and to display such differences so that a rapid comparison can be made by observing the resulting differences in the model of the 3-D environment.

The above examples are directed to an in-building wireless system, and it will be clear to those trained in the field of design, installation and maintenance of any communication network that similar methods can be applied to the comparison and display of measurement operations for any type of communication network, where such measurement operations can be used in one network of a particular environment, or in two or more different configurations of communication networks in the same physical environment, and the method can be applied to optical networks, baseband networks, and a collection of wireless and wired network devices that can share common or different wired or wireless trunks. For example, for an optical network within a building, the measurement operation would include measurements at each wall end or cable junction box within the building. The measurement operation of the fixed network should include sampling at a fixed location, rather than roaming. The present invention provides a display of such measurements within a 3-D environment, as well as a convenient display for comparing two or more such measurement operations. Furthermore, measurement performance may include the collection of measured or sampled values of any or all of the various early derived network system performance values collected over time and space, which may be performed simultaneously in an environment using two or more meters or measurement tools, or performed at different times using one or more meters or measurement tools. Alternatively, one may contemplate measurement methods that allow multiple sensors/receivers or transceivers to simultaneously record measurement data, and such data and comparisons between data may be displayed using the methods of the invention presented later.

The network system performance prediction result is a value or a series of values generated by a communication network model or simulator. The communication network model or simulator acts as an evaluation of measured values or strings of values generated (e.g., predicted or seen) by the actual communication system operating in the particular configuration and environment used for performance prediction. The value or series of values represents a communication parameter, a quality metric, or an entity representative of the operating environment typically measured by a network system communication device or device system that can be used to predict the suitability or performance of a particular communication device in the environment. Suitable and commonly used measurements and parameters and entity performance have been disclosed and are well known to those skilled in the art of communication system design, network design and communication system measurement. The network system performance prediction results are generated by one or more analytical calculations, empirical application models, or simulation outputs that may or may not be calculated at the time of calculation using a measured prediction engine. Network system performance prediction results allow engineers or technicians to properly install or design communication devices in an attempt to include the role of the operating environment so that they can be used by network system designers to make informed judgments and predictions as to how well a target system can be implemented. The complexity of multiple local or wide area network users is extreme and it is not possible to model all the variables that cause a particular network to perform a particular method at a particular time and spatial location. However, researchers have developed key lookups to help isolate the most important factors that dictate network performance, which are typically used in computations to generate network system performance predictions. For example, as shown in Rappaport (t.s. Rappaport, wireless communications, principles and practices, prentic Hall, 1996, NJ), in a wireless communication system, if the actual distance between the transmitter and receiver is known, the physical environment of the various isolation losses is known and simulated, it is possible to generate an analytical location-specific communication model that produces unequal error rates for wireless devices using BSPK modulation. From this model, it is possible to perform network design based on bit error rate in a 3-D environment. Similar analytical, empirical or simulation-based models are also applicable in optical, wireless and baseband networks.

Network system performance predictions may be computed in any environment, such as a city, campus, building complex, or building of interest. As will be described later, the present invention performs comparisons and provides a new display for comparing results of different network system performance predictions, whereby the collection of network system performance predictions achieved throughout a portion of a simulated environment is referred to as a prediction operation, where the prediction operation is the collection of one or more predicted values generated by one or more model communication networks simulated in a prediction engine, either on a point or grid or spatial capacity, but can be simulated multiple times to generate different result prediction operations that can be compared, using the same or different frequencies, using the same or different modes of operation (where the different modes of operation can include, but are not limited to, one or more of different data transmission rates, different packet sizes, different modulation techniques, different power levels, different sequences of pseudo noise codes, different pn code chip timing, different optical frequency bands, different network protocols, different bandwidths, different multiple access techniques, different antenna distribution systems, different antenna systems, different wiring techniques, different cabling methods or system distribution methods, different physical connections of system components that make up a communication system, or different source or error correction coding methods), or under different communication load conditions (due to bandwidth variations, subscriber density, or other methods that cause traffic flow or capacity switching times). Alternatively, the network system performance prediction may be calculated in a particular environment in which two or more different communication systems are simulated to provide network connectivity in the environment. It is common when one attempts to understand and predict what alternative communication network architectures may be implemented in a particular environment.

As an example, network system performance results may be calculated, resulting in a prediction operation to obtain predicted signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for wireless in-building systems throughout a building. Such a process may remove the need for measurement execution in order to install a properly functioning system if the model used in the prediction engine is sufficiently accurate. The prediction engine considered by sitepanner , which discloses a portion of all of the intersections of the above-referenced copending applications, must provide various performance parameters that provide an electrical, mechanical, digital, or physical description of the analog communication system. These performance parameters may include one or more additional, moved, repositioned, reconnected, redirected, or some other modification that describes one or more attributes that accurately model the effect required for prediction engine performance. Some examples of such inputs include: transmitter, antenna, RF distribution line, connector, splitter, base station controller, switch, physical location of optical-RF coupler, cable loss, splitter loss, antenna directivity pattern, transmitter power level, amplifier gain, frequency to be simulated, must be applied to the input of the prediction engine. The list in the preceding sentence is not meant to be complete, however, it represents a detailed and interrelated standard that considers the relevance of a normal model of a transmission system, both physically and electrically, as it might be installed in a real building. This is because of the visual capabilities of the present invention, focusing on showing the network as it actually exists in real life. Other inputs required by the prediction engine include a calculated model of the 2-D or 3-D actual operating environment, with specific floor locations, indoor clearance, and other 3-D information, or 2-D or 3-D maps. To compute, store and display the network system performance results in the 3-D environment model, specific points, grids or regions must be specified and requested by the user in order to determine the exact 3-D location where the network system performance results (in this case, SNR) can be computed and displayed. By completing a series of simulations of the entire environment, predictive operations may be generated and displayed.

The predictive operation produced by the predictive engine may take into account backup models, communication network architectures, or different modes of operation within the same physical environment, and other obvious perturbations that are suitable or of interest to wireless network designers now or in the future. As will be shown later, the present invention provides a novel method of displaying two or more differences in predictive operation for comparison, displaying such differences so that a rapid comparison can be made by observing the resulting differences in a 3-D environment model.

The above examples are for indoor wireless systems, and it is apparent that for a person trained in the field of design, simulation or analysis of any communication network, a similar approach is applied to the comparison and display of predicted performance results and predicted operation for any type of communication network, where such prediction can be used for simulation of one network in one particular environment, or simulation of two or more differently structured communication networks in the same physical environment, which can be applied to network and system simulations like optical networks, baseband networks, and a collection of wireless and wired network devices that can share common or different wired or wireless trunks. For example, to predict a wired optical network in a building, a simulation designed to produce network system predictions should include providing normal input and environment models to the prediction engine, and then providing output values at the precise locations of each wall end, channel, or cable junction box in the simulated building for a particular simulated environment. The present invention provides for the display of differences between two or more predicted operations in a 3-D environment, as well as a convenient display for comparing two or more such predicted operations. In addition, the prediction operations may include the collection of prediction values over time and space for any or all of the various network system performance values that have been previously spoken, the prediction engines being executed concurrently in the environmental model on separate computers on two or more computers connected together as parallel processing machines to obtain the prediction values, or the prediction values may be predicted at different times by one or more computers running one or more prediction engines, respectively. Alternatively, we consider a predictive approach that allows multiple locations in the environmental model to be computed and displayed simultaneously, so that predicted data and comparisons between data can be displayed using the method described later in this invention.

In addition to the above considerations, the present invention provides a means of displaying the difference between measured and predicted data in a convenient manner that is capable of clearly showing the actual versus predicted performance of any communication network. Based on the above teachings, it is apparent that in order to provide a record of measured and predicted values, the measured data and predicted data may be displayed in a 3-D environment, possibly overlapping each other in space. In this way, it is possible to compare the measurement operations with the prediction operations, as long as the measurements are collected at the points contained within the same environment that can be simulated by the prediction engine. The measurement points may be at the same locations as the predicted points and the comparison may be between measurement points that are close to the particular predicted point. Moreover, simply plotting the non-co-located measurement and prediction points still allows for different easy 3-D visualizations for rapid comparison. It is clear that for people trained in data processing and error analysis, such novel observation techniques can be applied to: a) measurement data, b) comparison of measurement data, c) prediction data, and d) comparison of prediction data, may also be used for comparison between measurement and prediction data. Using this new observation method described later, the comparison of the measurement pair prediction values provides great help to the engineer who can develop, optimize and use the most accurately implemented measurement model in a particular physical environment.

Consider now the actual user of the wireless design system. If the designer wishes to use the predicted performance data as a basis for comparison, he or she chooses to use the wireless communication system performance prediction mode. The preferred embodiment uses several methods to predict and optimize the performance of a wireless communication network. These include methods to incorporate and build performance prediction techniques such as those described in the previously cited and later technical reports and papers ("Interactive Coverage area and System Design for Wireless Communication Systems in Multi-flow Industrial Environment: SMT Plus," IEEE ICUPC '96 processing, by R.Skinmore, T.Pappaport, and A.L.Abbott, and "Sitepanner 3.16 for Windows 95/98/NT User's Manual", Wireless variable Communication, 1999), which are incorporated herein by reference. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art how to apply other wireless communication system performance models to the present method.

When using predictive data for comparison, several methods may be used to observe the results. As described in pending application 09/352,678, entitled "System for the Three-dimensional display of Wireless Communications System Performance", the method of the present invention may overlap prediction regions using a mesh of vertices located in any shape or size region. At each vertex of the mesh, the communication system performance is predicted, and all sets of performance predictions may be stored, recorded, or displayed as described in patent application 09/352,678.

Other methods of generating a set of predictive comparison data may be used. As described in pending application 09/318,840, entitled "Method and System for Automated optimization of Antenna Positioning in3-D," the present invention can use one or more locations, termed "watch points," in a 3-D environment for prediction. Using the predictive model mentioned previously, performance values at each monitoring point can be calculated as in pending application 09/318,840 and then stored, recorded or displayed.

Other methods may be used for generating the predictive comparison data set. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is novel, irrespective of how the predictive data is generated. The above-described method for generating a data set is given simply as an example from the present embodiment.

Referring now to FIG. 1O, a flow diagram for comparing prediction data in accordance with the present invention is shown. Where an environmental model 100 is available for prediction, a system 110 of RF hardware devices is placed into the system model. An initial set of prediction data 120 is obtained using the selected prediction model. In block 130, the communication system may be redesigned by adding, removing, or replacing hardware RF components, or by changing the layout, methodology, or other electrical or mechanical parameters of the existing hardware RF components. A second prediction data set 140 is then obtained for comparison with the initial data set. Because each prediction data set is stored in the computer, any two or more predictions may be compared to others at block 150. At block 160, the results of these comparisons are stored. The designer is free to recursively change the communication system as needed to compare the impact of changes on predicted performance.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that rather than comparing two communication systems separately, the comparison may be made between two or more communication systems that are present in the physical environment at a time. Prior art techniques, such as Sitepanner  from Wireless Valley Communications, have been able to perform such calculations and are therefore not encompassed by the present invention. One of the novelty of the present invention is to compare changes in a customized communication system, observing changes in the form of direct comparisons.

No prior art technique is capable of displaying comparisons between measured and predicted data on a 3-D environmental model. With the present invention, the collected measurement data can be used as a performance data set for comparison. Measurement data may be collected from various Wireless receivers connected to a computer running Sitepanner , as described in pending application 09/221,985 entitled System for creating Model and Measurement Database of a Wireless communication network.

Referring now to FIG. 11, a flow chart for comparing measured data with predicted data is shown. Wherein an RF hardware device system 210 having an environment model 200 available for making predictions is placed into the environment model. A set of prediction data 220 may be obtained using the selected prediction model at block 230 the designed communication system is built on top of the actual physical environment and at 240 measurement data is collected using a connected wireless receiver. At block 250, a comparison is made between the predicted performance data set and the measured data set using the available measured data. At block 260, the comparison data is displayed and/or stored, as previously discussed.

Fig. 12 shows a flow chart for comparing one or more measurement data sets with one another. An environment model 300 is placed into the environment model with an RF hardware device system 310 available for taking measurements. At block 320, the designed communication system is built into an actual physical environment and at 330, measurement data is collected using the connected wireless receiver. At blocks 340 and 350, the entire design, build, and measurement collection process may be repeated multiple times, and the measurement data set may be repeatedly compared, stored, and displayed.

Referring now to FIG. 13, the display of the predicted performance metrics at each monitoring point may be overlaid by the 3-D environmental model in the form of shaded colored cylindrical markers. In this form of display, the height and color of the cylindrical graphical structure corresponds to the predicted performance metric at the location in the 3-D environment model. The designer has full control over the range of colors and the range of heights that the cylindrical graphical structure takes. This form of display allows designers to quickly assess communication system performance by providing a more dramatic display of the predicted results. In FIG. 13, antenna assembly 601 may be repositioned and/or reoriented within the 3-D environmental model as the designer moves a mouse or other computer pointing device pointer. In real time, a new predicted performance metric that gives a new position and/or orientation of the antenna assembly is represented at each detection point 602 as a three-dimensional shaded colored cylinder. Those skilled in the art will appreciate how the watch point graphical entity may simply assume the form of a three-dimensional cone, pyramid, cube, or other three-dimensional graphical entity with similar results.

Referring now to FIG. 14, the display of the measured performance metrics at each monitoring point may take the form of a shaded colored cylindrical marker for the 3-D environmental model to overlay. Similar to FIG. 13, the height and color of the cylindrical diagramming entity corresponds to the measured performance metric at a location in the 3-D environmental model. The designer has full control over the range of colors and the range of heights that the cylindrical graphical structure takes. This form of display allows the designer to quickly assess the performance of the communication system by providing a more dramatic display of the measurements. For example, in the present invention, the distinction between measurement and/or prediction operations can be easily observed in a 3-D environment, even if some or all of the individual data points to be compared are not co-located or are interpolated close to co-located points. By having a 3-D view where height, width, color, shape, thickness can be easily distinguished between data sets, the user can quickly and visually compare the results. Furthermore, the vertical display nature of the 3-D checkpoints or set of checkpoints forming the grid of watchpoints, shows a rise in the physical environment of the display. Those skilled in the art will appreciate how the watch point graphical entity may simply assume the form of a three-dimensional cone, pyramid, cube, or other three-dimensional graphical entity with similar results.

While the invention has been described in terms of one embodiment, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. For example, the present invention is not limited to wireless communication systems only, but can be applied to any type of electromagnetic properties present in any simulated three-dimensional environment. For example, the present invention may find application in other adjacent micro-and nano-machines or in the next generation of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). These machines are extremely small, yet advanced sophisticated functional units allow them to perform complex tasks such as in the human body, in waveguide devices, hard access locations in jet engines. It is necessary to communicate wirelessly with these machines and to provide energy wirelessly to these machines, such as in the form of RF pulses, Infrared (IR), or other electromagnetic medium of interest. The present invention thus facilitates modeling and display of this and other wireless electromagnetic systems.

Claims

1. A method for designing, configuring or optimizing a communication network, comprising the steps of:

providing a computerized model representing a physical environment in which a communication network is or will be installed, said computerized model providing a display of at least part of said physical environment;

providing performance attributes for a plurality of system components used in the physical environment;

selecting a particular component from the plurality of system components for use in the computerized model;

presenting said selected particular component in said display;

selecting a particular point in the display where performance data is desired;

using a computerized model and said performance attributes, running a predictive model to predict a performance characteristic of a communication network comprised of said selected specific components, said predictive model providing predicted performance data to said selected specific points; and

displaying results from the predictive model at the particular point on the display in the form of one or more markers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the display is three-dimensional.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mark is three-dimensional.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said displaying and said marking are three-dimensional.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the indicia are described as an image cylinder having attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, surface texture variations, in accordance with performance data.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the indicia have attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, and surface texture variations based on the performance data.

7. An apparatus for designing, configuring or optimizing a communication network, comprising:

means for providing a computerized model representative of a physical environment in which a communication network is or will be installed, said computerized model providing a display of at least part of said physical environment;

means for providing performance attributes for a plurality of system components used in the physical environment;

means for selecting a particular component from the plurality of system components for use in the computerized model;

means for presenting said selected specific component in said display;

means for selecting a particular point in the display at which performance data is desired;

means for running a predictive model using a computerized model and said performance attributes to predict a performance characteristic of a communication network comprised of said selected specific components, said predictive model providing predicted performance data to said selected specific points; and

means for displaying results from the predictive model at the particular point on the display in the form of one or more markers.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said display is three-dimensional.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said indicia are three-dimensional.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said display and said indicia are three-dimensional.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said indicia are described as an image cylinder having attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, surface texture variations, in accordance with performance data.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said indicia have attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, surface texture variations, in accordance with performance data.

13. A method for designing, configuring or optimizing a communication network, comprising the steps of:

providing a computerized model representative of a physical environment in which a communications network is or will be installed, said computerized model providing a display of at least part of said physical environment;

presenting said selected particular component in said display;

selecting a particular point in the display at which performance data is desired;

using a computerized model and said performance attributes, running a predictive model to predict a performance characteristic of a communication network comprised of said selected specific components, said predictive model providing predicted performance data to said selected specific points;

measuring actual performance data for the physical environment; and

comparing said actual performance data with said predicted performance data.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of displaying the comparison results from the comparing step in the form of indicia on the display.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said display and said indicia are three-dimensional.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the indicia are described as an image cylinder having attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, surface texture variations, in accordance with performance data.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the indicia have attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, and surface texture variations based on the performance data.

18. A method for designing, configuring or optimizing a communication network, comprising the steps of:

presenting said selected particular component in said display;

using a computerized model and said performance attributes, running at least two different predictive models to predict performance characteristics of a communication network comprised of said selected specific component, said predictive models providing at least two predicted performance data to said selected specific point; and

comparing the at least two predicted performance data.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of displaying the comparison results from the comparing step in the form of indicia on the display.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said display and said indicia are three-dimensional.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the indicia are described as an image cylinder having attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, surface texture variations, in accordance with performance data.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the indicia have attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, and surface texture variations based on the performance data.

23. A method for designing, configuring or optimizing a communication network, comprising the steps of:

presenting said selected particular component in said display;

running at least one predictive model using a computerized model and said performance attributes to predict performance characteristics of a communication network comprised of said selected specific components, said predicting step being performed at least twice, performance parameters in said predictive model varying between said at least two times to provide at least two predicted performance data to said selected specific points; and

comparing the at least two predicted performance data.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of displaying the comparison results from the comparing step in the form of indicia on the display.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said displaying and said marking are three-dimensional.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the indicia are described as an image cylinder having attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, surface texture variations, in accordance with performance data.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the indicia have attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, and surface texture variations based on the performance data.

28. A method for designing, configuring or optimizing a communication network, comprising the steps of:

presenting said selected particular component in said display;

measuring actual performance data for said physical environment corresponding to said specific points, said measuring step being performed by using different measuring devices or at different time periods, so as to obtain at least two sets of predicted performance data; and

comparing the at least two sets of predicted performance data.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising the step of displaying the comparison results from the comparing step in the form of indicia on the display.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said displaying and said marking are three-dimensional.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the indicia are described as an image cylinder having attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, surface texture variations, in accordance with performance data.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the indicia have attributes selected from the group consisting of height, radius, brightness, color, hue, saturation, line type and width, transparency, and surface texture variations based on the performance data.