Patent ID: 8437765

Claim:
A method comprising: identifying, by a computing device, mobile devices within a geographical area associated with a carrier network; dividing, by the computing device, the geographical area into cells; collecting, by the computing device, network statistics associated with the mobile devices; assigning, by the computing device, values to the cells based on the network statistics; and identifying, by the computing device, locations in which to place small cells within the geographical area, wherein dividing the geographical area into the cells comprises: creating a grid map for the geographical area, and dividing the grid map into grids based on a coverage area associated with one of the small cells, wherein one of the grids comprises a plurality of the cells, and wherein identifying the locations in which to place the small cells comprises: calculating total values for the grids based on the assigned values, including: selecting a weighted mask based on a size of the grids, generating weighted values for the cells, by applying the weighted mask to the grids, based on the values assigned to the cells, and adding the weighted values of one of the grids to calculate the total value corresponding to the one of the grids, and selecting, based on the total values, one or more of the grids as the locations in which to place the small cells.