Patent ID: 7996004

Claim:
A method for diagnosing problems in a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system comprising a base station controller communicatively coupled with an external network, one or more base stations communicatively coupled with the base station controller and providing one or more wireless coverage areas, and one or more general-purpose wireless communication terminals communicatively coupled with the one or more base stations via the one or more wireless coverage areas, the method comprising: providing, in the wireless communication system, a maintenance device communicatively coupled with the base station controller and the external network; selecting a wireless coverage area from among the one or more wireless coverage areas for testing the wireless communication system; selecting a general-purpose wireless communication terminal from among the one or more general-purpose wireless communication terminals for testing the wireless communication system, the selected general-purpose wireless communication terminal being connected with the selected wireless coverage area; setting the selected general-purpose wireless communication terminal with a test software program; receiving, at the selected general-purpose wireless communication terminal, an initiation signal from the maintenance device for initiating a test of the wireless communication system; and in response to the initiation signal, performing the test at the selected general-purpose wireless communication terminal by executing the test software program, wherein execution of the test software program causes the selected general-purpose wireless communication terminal to transmit one or more test signals to the maintenance device via the selected wireless coverage area, the selected wireless coverage area's corresponding base station, and the base station controller.