Determining Coverage of a Wireless Network

Abstract

An apparatus and method of determining coverage of a wireless network is disclosed. The method includes traveling to multiple locations around access points of the wireless network, and for a plurality of client applications, measuring a performance parameter between a test client device and nodes of the wireless network, at a plurality of the multiple locations.

1 . A method of determining coverage of a wireless network, comprising:
 traveling to multiple locations in and around access points of the wireless network;   for a plurality of client applications, measuring a performance metric between a test client device and nodes of the wireless network, at a plurality of the multiple locations.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the performance metric comprises a data throughput. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein characterizing the data throughput at each of the plurality of locations comprises the test client device transmitting a plurality of probe packets at a predetermined rate, and counting a number of responses from the nodes. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein measuring the performance metric for the plurality of client applications comprises measuring the performance metric for multiple types of data. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the multiple types of data comprises multiple packet sizes, multiple packet types and multiple intervals. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising measuring the performance metric with a one of the multiple data types depending upon the client application. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein measuring the performance metric for the plurality of client applications comprises additionally characterizing latency and jitter between the test client device and the nodes at the plurality of locations. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein measuring the performance metric for the plurality of client applications comprises measuring the performance metric while transmitting data packets that mimic data packets of each of the plurality of client applications. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising measuring signal strengths of nodes of the wireless network. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising identifying potential self-interference areas of the wireless network based on the measured signal strengths, and the measured performance metric. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the self-interference areas are identified by identifying anomalies between the measured signal strength of each node and a data throughput of each node. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a single wireless link is between the test client device and the node of the wireless network. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein multiple wireless links are between the test client device and the node of the wireless network. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising characterizing the performance metric between the client device and a device that is either a part of, or directly or indirectly connected to the wireless network. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 sectoring an area of the wireless network into grid points;   associating each of the locations with a grid point;   designating grid points that correspond with locations having a data throughput greater than a threshold as passing grid points;   calculating a percentage wireless network coverage by comparing the passing grid points with a total number of grid points in which the performance metric was measured.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising recording identifications of nodes of the wireless network and reporting poor and impaired nodes. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein poor nodes are identified as nodes that have a lowest data throughput, or provide the least coverage. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising real-time displaying of measured performance metrics. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein real-time displaying of the measured performance metrics comprises showing the real-time measured performance metrics on a map. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein a data throughput is indicated on the map by providing different colors on the map for different levels of data throughput.