Patent ID: 7200392

Claim:
In a wireless communication system having a plurality of base stations defining a signal coverage area for communicating with a mobile-appliance, and having a mobile-appliance location determining system overlay for determining the location of the mobile-appliance in the coverage area, a method of collecting test and measurement data, comprising the steps of: (a) selecting one of the plural base stations to search for a transmitting mobile-appliance; (b) at the selected one of the plural base stations, searching for a transmitting mobile-appliance by scanning frequency, time slot and code as a function of a set of operating parameters of the wireless communication system; (c) once a transmitting mobile appliance is detected, determining if the quality of the signal reception from the transmitting mobile appliance is acceptable; (d) selecting a set of the plural base stations in the vicinity of the transmitting mobile-appliance; (e) at ones of the plural base stations in the selected set, measuring the signal received from the transmitting mobile-appliance; and, (f) storing the measured signal data.