Simulating service changes in an application module (am) in a wireless communications system (wcs) to simulate site walks in the wireless communications system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016302116-A1
Application number	US-201615075414-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 21, 2016
Priority date	Apr 8, 2015
Publication date	Oct 13, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Simulating sector changes in an application module (AM) in a wireless communications system (WCS) to simulate site walks in the WCS. The AMs are wireless telecommunication circuitry wired or wirelessly associated with wireless communications system components in a WCS. In one embodiment, the AMs are configured to determine signal information (e.g., signal strength, power and/or quality) of live communications signals in a WCS. The measured signal strength values are then artificially changed to simulate a site walk in the WCS. For example, the signal strength of communication signals received by an AM from a particular sector can be artificially lowered so that the signal strength from a neighboring sector located further away from the AM appears to be stronger. In this manner, a site walk of the AM in the sectors in which communications signals are received by the AM in the WCS can be simulated.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An application module configured to be associated with a communications component in a wireless communications system (WCS), comprising:
at least one communications interface configured to receive communications signals from a plurality of sectors in a WCS; a power meter communicatively coupled to the at least one communications interface, the power meter configured to measure signal strength of the received communications signals; at least one processor configured to:
execute an emulation application to artificially change signal information of received communications signals from a first sector among the plurality of sectors in the WCS;
execute a roaming application to:
receive the artificially changed signal information of received communications signals from the first sector;
determine if the application module is to leave or join a second sector among the plurality of sectors based on the received artificially changed signal information of received communications signals from the first sector; and
join a second sector among the plurality of sectors if the received artificially changed signal information of received communications signals from the first sector is less than the signal information of the second sector to simulate a site walk of the application module from the first sector to the second sector in the WCS; and

communicate information regarding received signal information of the communications signals from the first sector and the second sector to communicate simulated site walk information of the application module in the WCS.

2 . The application module of claim 1 , wherein the signal information is comprised of signal strength information.

3 . The application module of claim 2 , wherein the signal strength information is comprised of a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) information.

4 . The application module of claim 1 , wherein the signal information is comprised of signal quality information.

5 . The application module of claim 4 , wherein the signal quality information is comprised of reference signal received quality (RSRQ) information.

6 . The application module of claim 1 , wherein the signal information is comprised of signal power information.

7 . The application module of claim 6 , wherein the signal power information is comprised of reference signal received power (RSRP) information.

8 . The application module of claim 1 further comprising internal memory, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to store the simulated site walk information in the internal memory.

9 . The application module of claim 1 , wherein the at least one communications interface is comprised from the group consisting of: a cellular modem interface, a Bluetooth modem interface, a WiFi interface, and a base transceiver station (BTS) interface.

10 . The application module of claim 1 , wherein the at least one communications interface is comprised of a wired communications interface.

11 . The application module of claim 1 further configured to communicate the simulated site walk information over at least one downlink communications medium of the WCS communicatively coupled to the at least one communications interface.

12 . The application module of claim 1 further configured to communicate the simulated site walk information over at least one uplink communications medium of the WCS communicatively coupled to the at least one communications interface.

13 . The application module of claim 1 further configured to wirelessly communicate the simulated site walk information to a wireless client device.

14 . The application module of claim 1 configured to be associated with the communications component in the WCS comprising a distributed antenna system (DAS).

15 . A method of simulating a site walk in a wireless communications system (WCS), comprising:
receiving communications signals in an application module associated with a communications component of a WCS from a plurality of sectors in the WCS; determining the signal information of the received communications signals; artificially changing the signal information of received communications signals from a first sector among the plurality of sectors in the WCS; receiving the artificially changed signal information of received communications signals from the first sector; determining if the application module is to leave or join a second sector among the plurality of sectors based on the received artificially changed signal information of received communications signals from the first sector; joining a second sector among the plurality of sectors if the received artificially changed signal information of received communications signals from the first sector is less than the signal information of the second sector to simulate a site walk of the application module from the first sector to the second sector in the WCS; and communicating information regarding received signal information of the communications signals from the first sector and the second sector to communicate simulated site walk information of the application module in the WCS.

16 . The method of claim 15 comprising communicating the simulated site walk information over at least one downlink communications medium of the WCS communicatively coupled to at least one communications interface.

17 . The method of claim 15 comprising communicating the simulated site walk information over at least one uplink communications medium of the WCS communicatively coupled to at least one communications interface.

18 . The method of claim 15 comprising wirelessly communicating the simulated site walk information to a wireless client device.

19 . A wireless communications system (WCS), comprising:
a central unit configured to:
receive a downlink communications signal from a communications system;
distribute the downlink communications signal over at least one downlink communications medium to a plurality of remote units;
receive an uplink communications signal from the plurality of remote units over at least one uplink communications medium; and
distribute the uplink communications signal to the communications system;
each remote unit among the plurality of remote units configured to:
receive the downlink communications signal from the central unit over the at least one downlink communications medium;
distribute the downlink communications signal to a client device;
receive the uplink communications signal from the client device; and
distribute the uplink communications signal to the central unit over the at least one uplink communications medium; and
at least one application module configured to be associated with at least one of the central unit and a remote unit among the plurality of remote units, the at least one application module comprising:
at least one communications interface configured to receive communications signals from a plurality of sectors in a WCS;
a power meter communicatively coupled to the at least one communications interface, the power meter configured to measure signal information of the received communications signals;
at least one processor configured to:
execute an emulation application to artificially change the signal information of received communications signals from a first sector among the plurality of sectors in the WCS;
execute a roaming application to:
receive the artificially changed signal information of received communications signals from the first sector;
determine if the at lea

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communications LLC

Inventors

• Chamarti Aravind
• Cune William Patrick

Classifications

• H04B17/3912

  Simulation models, e.g. distribution of spectral power density or received signal strength indicator [RSSI] for a given geographic region · CPC title

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W36/0083 Primary

  Determination of parameters used for hand-off, e.g. generation or modification of neighbour cell lists · CPC title

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title