If you go to a wireless service provider’s store, you will likely see a network map showing the area they have under their cellular coverage. Infact these days you may find network maps showing coverage areas for 3G and 4G networks. In order to accurately map these coverage areas, service providers use what is known as ‘drive testing’. Network testers drive through different areas in vehicles equipped with spectrum analyzers and antennas and measure signal strength. Besides creating ‘number of bars’ signal strength maps, drive testing or wireless data collection can also be used to provide coverage analysis, determine network weakness information and aid in finding specific problem areas reported by consumers.

Some of the wireless service providers use an audio conference bridge in conjunction with such drive testing. A standard test signal is fed into an audio conference that is set up for ‘lecture mode’. In this mode the incoming signal is simply broadcast downstream. Different testers then dial into the conference using their cell phones and hear the test signal as they drive around. Since the test signal is a continuous tone, it helps them characterise where the signal becomes weak or is completely absent. They can also visit the spots where consumers complain about dropped calls and verify if that happens due to a weak signal or due to some other reason.

Modern audio conference bridges allow one to see a real time view of a running conference. Based on different thresholds for loudest speaker algorithm, the test supervisor can easily tell which routes have signal strength issues.

This approach of using a conference bridge for wireless signal strength testing can be cost effective and add a human angle to the test results.

Another side benefit of the real time display of the conference is that the test supervisor can tell which testers are dialed into the bridge and which ones are goofing off.

Tags: drive testing, signal strength measurement

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Audio Conferencing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.