Patent ID: 8045506

Claim:
A computer-implemented, iterative method for designing a sparse wireless location system (WLS) from an initial network design stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, wherein the sparse WLS is designed to be overlaid on a wireless communications system, comprising: performing an intelligent WLS network design process to produce an initial network design; accessing said initial network design from the non-transitory computer readable medium; performing a preliminary network design analysis to determine that at least one of the following performance limiting factors affects said initial network design: downlink beacon discovery and uplink demodulation; and modifying the initial network design based on the performance limiting factor determined as affecting said initial network design, wherein said modifying comprises the following: (1) when the performance limiting factor is downlink beacon discovery, one or more of the following modifications is performed: deploying at least one enhanced downlink antenna; deploying downlink interference cancellation; deploying base transceiver station (BTS) synchronization; adding at least one location measuring unit (LMU) to the network design; determining that an Abis monitoring system (AMS) is not deployed, and then deploying at least one downlink-only location measuring unit (LMU) at an identified site; and determining that an Abis monitoring system (AMS) is deployed, and then enabling the use of Enhanced Beacon Synchronization (EBS) and AMS-derived beacon timing functions; (2) when the performance limiting factor is uplink demodulation, one or more of the following modifications is performed: determining that communications system demodulation data is enabled, and enabling a demodulated data feature; determining that communications system demodulation data is not enabled, and determining that an Abis monitoring system (AMS) is not deployed and enabling a mid-amble only correction feature; determining that communications system demodulation data is not enabled, and determining that an Abis monitoring system (AMS) is deployed and enabling an AMS-derived demodulated data feature; adding at least one location measuring unit (LMU) to the network design; adding at least one dedicated antenna facility to the network design; and saving the modified network design on the non-transitory computer readable medium.