Evaluating device antenna performance and quality

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9590746-B2
Application number	US-201414567044-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 11, 2014
Priority date	Dec 11, 2014
Publication date	Mar 7, 2017
Grant date	Mar 7, 2017

Abstract

A method includes receiving over-the-air (OTA) performance test data measured for a first set of pass computing devices and for a second set of fail computing devices, measuring a first set of training data for the first and second set of computing devices during a plurality of KPI tests, measuring a second set of training data for a particular computing device, determining which ones of the plurality of KPIs qualify as clustering features, and determining a first set of KPI centers, a second set of KPI centers, and a third set of KPI centers, determining a first and a second dissimilarity distance separating the first set and the second set of computing devices from the particular device, respectively. The method further includes determining whether the first dissimilarity distance is greater than second dissimilarity distance to qualify the particular computing device to pass the OTA test.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, via a processor, over-the-air (OTA) performance test data measured for a first set of computing devices and for a second set of computing devices, wherein the first set of computing devices passed the OTA performance test and the second set of computing device failed the OTA performance test, and wherein the computing devices of the first set and the second set are associated with a similar computing device type;
measuring a first set of training data for the first and second sets of computing devices during a plurality of tests, each performed for one of a plurality of key performance indicators (KPIs);
measuring a second set of training data for a particular computing device during the plurality of tests, wherein the particular computing device is similar to the computing device type;
determining which ones of the plurality of KPIs qualify as features to separate into clusters the first set of computing devices from the second set of computing devices based on the first set of training data;
determining a first set of KPI centers, each of which corresponds to one of the feature qualified KPIs, for the first set of computing devices, a second set of KPI centers for the second set of computing devices, and a third set of KPI centers for the particular computing device;
determining a first dissimilarity distance separating the first set of computing devices and the particular computing device using the first set of KPI centers and the third set of KPI centers;
determining a second dissimilarity distance separating the second set of computing devices and the particular computing device using the second set of KPI centers and the third set of KPI centers;
determining which of the first dissimilarity distance and the second dissimilarity distance is greater; and
based on a result of the determining which of the first dissimilarity distance and the second dissimilarity distance is greater, qualifying the particular computing device to pass or fail the OTA test.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular computing device is qualified to pass the OTA test if the first dissimilarity distance is determined to be greater than the second dissimilarity distance.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular computing device is qualified to fail the OTA test if the second dissimilarity distance is determined to be greater than the first dissimilarity distance.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of computing devices is determined to have passed the OTA because each of the first set of computing devices has an antenna of good quality, and wherein the second set of computing devices failed to pass the OTA because each one has an antenna of poor quality.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular computing device has an antenna of good quality when the first dissimilarity distance is determined to be greater than the second dissimilarity distance.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular computing device has an antenna of poor quality when the second dissimilarity distance is determined to be greater than the first dissimilarity distance.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining which ones of the plurality of KPIs qualify as features to cluster the first set of computing devices from the second set of computing devices comprises:
evaluating for each of the plurality of KPIs a mean intra-cluster distance for the first set of computing devices;
evaluating for each of the plurality of KPIs a mean inter-cluster distance from the first set of computing devices to the second set of computing devices;
evaluating for each of the plurality of KPIs a silhouette distance between the first set of computing devices and the second set of computing devices using the mean intra-cluster distances and the mean inter-cluster distances; and
determining that one of the plurality of KPIs qualifies as a clustering feature when a corresponding silhouette distance is equal to or greater a predetermined positive value that is greater than zero and less than one.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the determined KPI centers is a centroid.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the determined KPI centers is a median, and wherein the medians are determined when the plurality of KPIs include a preset number of outliers.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a first dissimilarity distance includes using centroids as KPI centers.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a first dissimilarity distance includes using medians as KPI centers.

12. An analytics engine comprising:
a communication interface configured to enable communication via a mobile network;
a processor coupled with the communication interface;
a storage device accessible to the processor; and
an executable program in the storage device, wherein execution of the program by the processor configures the analytics engine to perform functions, including functions to:
receiving, via the processor, over-the-air (OTA) performance test data measured for a first set of computing devices and for a second set of computing devices, wherein the first set of computing devices passed the over-the-air (OTA) performance test and the second set of computing device failed the OTA performance test, and wherein the computing devices of the first set and the second set are associated with a similar a computing device type;
measuring a first set of training data for the first and second sets of computing devices during a plurality of tests, each performed for one of a plurality of key performance indicators (KPIs);
measuring a second set of training data for a particular computing device during the plurality of tests, wherein the particular computing device is similar to the computing device type;
determining which ones of the plurality of KPIs qualify as features to separate into clusters the first set of computing devices from the second set of computing devices based on the first set of training data;
determining a first set of KPI centers, each of which corresponds to one of the feature qualified KPIs, for the first set of computing devices, a second set of KPI centers for the second set of computing devices, and a third set of KPI centers for the particular computing device;
determining a first dissimilarity distance separating the first set of computing devices and the particular computing device using the first set of KPI centers and the third set of KPI centers;
determining a second dissimilarity distance separating the second set of computing devices and the particular computing device using the second set of KPI centers and the third set of KPI centers;
determining which of the first dissimilarity distance and the second dissimilarity distance is greater; and
based on a result of the determining which of the first dissimilarity distance and the second dissimilarity distance is greater, qualifying the particular computing device to pass or fail the OTA test.

13. The analytics engine of claim 12 , wherein the particular computing device is qualified to pass the OTA test if the first dissimilarity distance is determined to be greater than second dissimilarity distance.

14. The analytics engine of claim 12 , wherein the particular computing device qualifies to fail the OTA test if the second dissimilarity distance is determined to be greater than first dissimilarity distance.

15. The analytics engine of claim 12 , wherein the first set of computing devices passed the OTA because each of the first set of computing devices has an antenna of good quality, and wherein

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Ouyang Ye
• Becht Carol

Classifications

• H04B17/318 Primary

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04B17/16 Primary

  Test equipment located at the transmitter · CPC title