Patent ID: 8560670

Claim:
A computer implemented system for characterizing capacity of a telecommunications network comprising: a server including at least one storage device for storing a plurality of premise addresses for a plurality of subscribers of the telecommunications network and a weighted value for the corresponding capacity of the telecommunications network to each of the plurality of premise addresses, the weighted value for each premise address being calculated based on a type of network access technology that provides the capacity to that premise address; a display for displaying maps of geographic areas covering the plurality of premise addresses; an input device for selecting a first geographic area containing one or more of the plurality of premise addresses on the displayed maps of geographic areas; and a processor configured to: determine a total number of premise addresses in the selected first geographic area and the weighted value for the corresponding capacity to each of the premise addresses in the selected first geographic area; calculate an average capacity based on the weighted value for the capacity to the one or more premise addresses in a smaller portion of the selected first geographic area; produce a first matrix that corresponds to the selected first geographic area, each element of the first matrix representing the smaller portion of the selected first geographic area; assign a descriptor to each element of the first matrix based on the calculated average capacity for the one or more premise addresses within the smaller portion of the selected first geographic area; and generate a second matrix comprising a plurality of elements, the plurality of elements including a first element having a descriptor calculated by summing descriptors assigned to a plurality of elements of the first matrix, which represent a number of areas in the smaller portion of the selected first geographic area having a capacity equal to or greater than a threshold value, and multiplying the summed descriptors by a number of contiguous smaller portions of the selected first geographic area having a capacity equal to or greater than the threshold value.