Patent ID: 7171208

Claim:
An apparatus for designing or deploying a communications network, comprising: a means for providing (I) a computerized model which represents a physical environment in which a communications network is or will be installed, said computerized model providing a display of at least a portion of said physical environment, and (II) performance attributes for a plurality of system components which may be used in said physical environment, a number of said system components having associated with them frequency dependent characteristics wherein said frequency dependent characteristics define electrical properties of said system components at at least two different frequencies; a means for selecting specific components from said plurality of system components for use in a communications network; a means for representing said selected specific components in said display; and a means for running prediction models using the computerized model and said performance attributes to predict performance characteristics of said communications network comprised of said selected specific components, said prediction models utilizing said frequency dependent characteristics in calculations which predict said performance characteristics of said communications network.