Patent ID: 6360094
Filing Date: 2002-03-19
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
A method of locating antenna problems in a radio frequency communications network including a plurality of cell sites, each of said cell sites comprising at least one sector having an antenna associated therewith and further having associated therewith a base station (â€œBSâ€ ) comprising a site test mobile (â€œSTMâ€ ) connectable to said antenna, all of said base stations being interconnected by a base station controller (â€œBSCâ€ ), the method comprising:selecting one of said cell sites; selecting a sector of said selected one of said cell sites; identifying a neighbor cell site and sector for said selected cell site and sector; determining whether said communications network has been calibrated; if said communications network has not been calibrated, calibrating said communications network; if said communications network has been calibrated, automatically taking a plurality of measurements with respect to said selected cell site and sector and said neighbor cell site and sector, said measurements being stored in a second lookup table in a centrally located database of said communications network and updated in real time; automatically comparing said plurality of measurements with calibration data for said selected cell site and sector and said neighbor cell site and sector, said calibration data being stored in a first lookup table in the centrally located database of said communications network; and automatically determining from said comparison whether said antenna suffers from at least one predefined problem.