Patent ID: 7099670

Claim:
A system for design of a wireless network providing communication and location services for mobile units within the service area of the network, comprising: an optimizer for generating solution values for a network design, the optimizer being operative to search for solution points providing optimal communication coverage and location identification performance for the network; and a coverage and locatability engine for evaluating coverage and location performance for each of a series of solution points selected by the optimizer, the coverage and locatability engine computing a coverage and locatability performance value for each of the solution points and providing the performance value to the optimizer for use in evaluating the quality of the solution point, wherein the optimizer searches for candidate solution points by first generating an initial candidate solution point, submitting the initial candidate solution point to the coverage and locatability engine for evaluation and using the results generated by the coverage and locatability engine to evaluate the quality of the solution point and to determine favorable search areas for the next solution point, and repeatedly generating and evaluating new candidate solution points until an optimal solution point is found, wherein the coverage and locatability engine computes derivatives of each coverage and locatability performance value for a solution point and wherein the derivatives are used by the optimizer to indicate favorable directions in which to search for a new candidate solution point.