Patent ID: 7515916

Claim:
A distributed radio frequency (RF) propagation measurement system for automatically characterizing RF properties of a predefined physical space, said system comprising: a single central controller; a plurality of sounder units controllable by said central controller, each sounder unit including, antenna array means adjustable for directionally transmitting and receiving RF energy, a channel sounder transmitter, a channel sounder receiver, and a processing means for calculating a plurality of power-delay profiles from RF energy received by said channel sounder receiver; synchronization means for aligning frequency and phase of said channel sounder transmitters and said channel sounder receivers within said plurality of sounder units; communication means for transferring data and commands between said central controller and said plurality of sounder units; location determining means to measure position of said plurality of sounder units within said predetermined physical space; software means for sequencing operation of said plurality of sounder units, adjusting directionality of said antenna array means and combining said plurality of power-delay profiles obtained from said plurality of sounder units in conjunction with said location determining means to obtain RF scattering and attenuation properties; and control means for controlling said plurality of sounder units in accordance with said software means; wherein said distributed RF propagation measurement system automatically obtains RF scattering and attenuation properties in at least two dimensions within said predefined physical space.