Systems and methods for assessing Wi-Fi coverage for client devices in a multi-access point environment
A communication interface receives data points including link quality and link usage measurements related to a mobile computing device associated with the wireless network during a sampling interval. A processing device weights each data point based on at least one metric included in the link quality measurement and associated with a link usage measurement. Each weighted data point is evaluated against one or more thresholds. A weighted data point is discarded based on a result of the threshold comparison or assigned to one of a plurality of link quality bins based on a consolidated measure of the link quality measurements. A coverage quality score is computed based on a ratio of a total count of weighted link quality measurements in at least one of the plurality of link quality bins to a total count of weighted link quality measurements in all of the link quality bins.
1. A method for determining quality of coverage in a wireless network, comprising:
receiving data points, in a communication interface of a computing device, the data points comprising link quality and link usage measurements related to a mobile computing device associated with the wireless network during a sampling interval;
weighting, in the processing device of the computing device, each data point based on at least one metric included in the link quality measurements and associated link usage measurement;
evaluating, in the processing device of the computing device, each weighted data point against one or more thresholds, wherein a weighted data point is discarded based on a result of the threshold comparison or assigned to one of a plurality of link quality bins based on a consolidated measure of the link quality measurements; and
computing, in the processing device of the computing device, a coverage quality score based on a ratio of a total count of weighted data points in at least one of the plurality of link quality bins to a total count of weighted data points in all of the link quality bins.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the consolidated measure of the link quality measurements corresponds to a Modulation Coding Scheme of a communication link associated with the data point.
3. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
building a dynamic range map including one or more data points of the mobile computing device.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the link usage measurement measures data usage on a communication link for each data point.
5. The method of claim 4 , comprising:
discarding a data point when the link usage measurement is below a predetermined data usage threshold.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one metric included in the link quality measurement is based on a signal-to-noise ratio of the communication link and physical details of the communication link.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one metric included in the link quality measurement includes movement of the mobile computing device at an edge or toward an edge of the coverage area, the method comprising:
discarding a data point assigned to a link quality bin if at least a measured distance of the mobile computing device from the access point is above a distance threshold.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein weighting each data point according to at least one metric included in the link quality measurement comprises:
assigning a lower weight to the data point of the mobile computing device, if the at least one metric included in the link quality measurement indicates movement of the mobile computing device at an edge or toward an edge of the coverage area, and a measured distance of the mobile computing device from the access point is above a predetermined distance threshold.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the link usage measurement measures data usage on the communication link of each data point, the method comprising:
discarding a data point associated with a mobile computing device because no data activity is observed during the sampling interval.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the link usage measurement indicates whether the mobile device is active during the sampling interval.
11. A system for determining quality of coverage in a wireless local area network, comprising:
a communication interface configured to receive data points comprising link quality and usage measurements related to a mobile computing device associated with the wireless network during a sampling interval; and
a processing device configured to:
weight each data point based on at least one metric included in the link quality measurement and associated with a link usage measurement;
evaluate each weighted data point against one or more thresholds, wherein a weighted data point is discarded based on a result of the threshold comparison or assigned to one of a plurality of link quality bins based on a consolidated measure of the link quality measurements; and
compute a coverage quality score based on a ratio of a total count of weighted link quality measurements in at least one of the plurality of link quality bins to a total count of weighted link quality measurements in all of the link quality bins.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the link usage measurement measures data usage on a communication link of each data point.
13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processing device is configured to discard at least one of the one or more data points when the link usage measurement is below a predetermined threshold.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one metric of the link quality measurement includes at least a direction of movement.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the processing device is configured to discard at least one data point of the one or more data points when the direction of movement of the mobile computing device includes movement at an edge or towards an edge of the coverage area.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one metric of the link quality measurement includes a measured distance between the mobile computing device and the access point is above a distance threshold.
17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the link usage measurement indicates whether the mobile computing device is active during the sampling interval.
18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the processing device is configured to discard at least one data point of the one or more data points if the mobile computing device is not active on the wireless network during at least the sampling interval.
19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the link usage measurement includes measures data usage of a communication link of each data point, the processing device being configured to increment a count value for one or more link quality bins when a data point having data usage above a predetermined threshold is deposited into the one or more link quality bins.
20. The system of claim 11 , wherein the consolidated measure of the link quality measurements corresponds to a Modulation Coding Scheme of a communication link associated with the data point.