Grid reference system wireless network anomaly detection and visualization

Abstract

A processing system including at least one processor may obtain a request that identifies a region associated with a wireless communication network, identify sub-areas within the region, obtain performance indicator data for the sub-areas for a plurality of time periods from mobile devices within each sub-area, and apply an adaptive thresholding to the performance indicator data for each sub-area to determine one or more thresholds associated with the performance indicator data. The processing system may further identify a risk level, from among a plurality of risk levels, for each sub-area for at least one time periods based upon the one or more thresholds and the performance indicator data for each sub-area, where the one or more thresholds define one or more risk levels of the plurality of risk levels, and provide reporting data indicating the risk level for each sub-area for the at least one time period.

1 . A method comprising:
 obtaining, by a processing system including at least one processor, a request that identifies a region associated with a wireless communication network;   identifying, by the processing system, a plurality of sub-areas within the region;   obtaining, by the processing system, performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas for a plurality of time periods from mobile devices within each of the plurality of sub-areas;   applying, by the processing system, an adaptive thresholding to the performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas to determine one or more thresholds associated with the performance indicator data;   identifying, by the processing system, a risk level, from among a plurality of risk levels, for each of the plurality of sub-areas for at least one time period of the plurality of time periods based upon the one or more thresholds and the performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas, wherein the one or more thresholds define one or more risk levels of the plurality of risk levels; and   providing, by the processing system, reporting data indicating the risk level for each of the plurality of sub-areas for the at least one time period.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 presenting a map based upon the reporting data, wherein the map indicates, for each respective sub-area of the plurality of sub-areas, a visual indicator associated with the risk level of the respective sub-area for the at least one time period.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining, for at least a portion of the plurality of sub-areas, one or more cells of the wireless communication network associated the at least the portion of the plurality of sub-areas; and   providing additional reporting data that identifies the at least the portion of the plurality of sub-areas and the one or more cells.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the at least the portion of the plurality of sub-areas comprises sub-areas of the plurality of sub-areas having risk levels which exceed a designated risk level of the plurality of risk levels. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising:
 presenting a map based upon the additional reporting data, wherein the map indicates the at least the portion of the plurality of sub-areas and the one or more cells.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more thresholds are determined in accordance with a specification associated with the request. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reporting data includes a plurality of entries, each of the plurality of entries including:
 a time period of the plurality of time periods;   a sub-area of the plurality of sub-areas; and   at least one metric associated with the performance indicator data for the sub-area for the time period.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the at least one metric comprises at least one of:
 a mean of the performance indicator data for the sub-area for the time period;   a median of the performance indicator data for the sub-area for the time period;   a highest threshold of the performance indicator data for the sub-area for the time period;   a moderate threshold of the performance indicator data for the sub-area for the time period;   a lowest threshold of the performance indicator data for the sub-area for the time period; or   a number of samples of the performance indicator data for the sub-area for the time period.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the performance indicator data comprises at least one of:
 a reference signal received power;   a reference signal received quality;   a signal to noise ratio;   a signal to interference and noise ratio;   an uplink bandwidth;   a downlink bandwidth;   a session drop rate; or   a call drop rate.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sub-areas comprises a plurality of locations according to a grid reference system. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein a sub-area size of the plurality of sub-areas is defined at a designated precision level of the grid reference system. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the designated precision level is selected based upon a number of available samples of the performance indicator data for each of the plurality of sub-areas for the at least one time period. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more thresholds associated with the performance indicator data are determined in accordance with a t-digest data structure for the performance indicator data. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the performance indicator data is obtained in a raw format, preprocessed, and written to at least one table of a resilient distributed dataset. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the processing system implements a cluster computing framework for managing the resilient distributed dataset, wherein the applying the adaptive thresholding and the identifying the plurality of sub-areas are performed in accordance with an application that is executed via the cluster computing framework. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein at least a portion of the performance indicator data is obtained from the mobile devices within each of the plurality of sub-areas. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the at least the portion of the performance indicator data that is obtained from the mobile devices within each of the plurality of sub-areas is loaded into an ingest database system. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reporting data is published to a topic, wherein an analytics repository of the processing system is a subscriber to the topic. 
     
     
         19 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system including at least one processor, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
 obtaining a request that identifies a region associated with a wireless communication network;   identifying a plurality of sub-areas within the region;   obtaining performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas for a plurality of time periods from mobile devices within each of the plurality of sub-areas;   applying an adaptive thresholding to the performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas to determine one or more thresholds associated with the performance indicator data;   identifying a risk level, from among a plurality of risk levels, for each of the plurality of sub-areas for at least one time period of the plurality of time periods based upon the one or more thresholds and the performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas, wherein the one or more thresholds define one or more risk levels of the plurality of risk levels; and   providing reporting data indicating the risk level for each of the plurality of sub-areas for the at least one time period.   
     
     
         20 . A device comprising:
 a processing system including at least one processor; and   a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
 obtaining a request that identifies a region associated with a wireless communication network; 
 identifying a plurality of sub-areas within the region; 
 obtaining performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas for a plurality of time periods from mobile devices within each of the plurality of sub-areas; 
 applying an adaptive thresholding to the performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas to determine one or more thresholds associated with the performance indicator data; 
 identifying a risk level, from among a plurality of risk levels, for each of the plurality of sub-areas for at least one time period of the plurality of time periods based upon the one or more thresholds and the performance indicator data of the wireless communication network for each of the plurality of sub-areas, wherein the one or more thresholds define one or more risk levels of the plurality of risk levels; and 
 providing reporting data indicating the risk level for each of the plurality of sub-areas for the at least one time period.