Method and apparatus for evaluating a radio frequency for use in a cell-area of a wireless network

1. A method, comprising:

selecting a cell-area in a wireless network that is or will be served by a base-station operating at a radio frequency;

identifying a plurality of user equipment within the selected cell-area that are or can be served by the base-station;

identifying potentially interfering devices operating at the same radio frequency as the base-station; and

estimating an interference impact from the identified potentially interfering devices to communication between the base-station and each of the identified plurality of user equipment, comprising:

identifying a viewshed for each of the identified potentially interfering devices;

declaring an interference impact from each of the identified potentially interfering devices with respect to each of the identified plurality of user equipment or the base-station where the viewshed for at least one of the identified potentially interfering devices encompasses a location of one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station;

calculating an interference power as a function of a distance between one of the identified potentially interfering devices and one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station where the one of the identified plurality of user equipment or the base-station is within the viewshed of the one of the identified potentially interfering devices; and

calculating a cumulative interference impact based on the declared interference impact for each of the identified potentially interfering devices with respect to one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the plurality of user equipment within the selected cell-area that can be served by the base-station comprises choosing a plurality of locations within a viewshed of an antenna of the base-station at which the respective plurality of user equipment can be served by the base-station.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of locations correspond to one or both of centroids of a respective plurality of land parcels, and points on roofs at which to mount an antenna within the plurality of land parcels.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein choosing the plurality of locations within the viewshed of the antenna of the base-station at which the respective plurality of user equipment can be served by the base-station comprises one of:

randomly choosing the plurality of locations among the plurality of land parcels within the base-station's viewshed;

choosing the plurality of locations among the plurality of land parcels associated with prospective customers that have expressed an interest in accessing the wireless network; and

choosing the plurality of locations for all of the plurality of land parcels within the base-station's viewshed.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying potentially interfering devices operating at the same radio frequency as the base-station comprises identifying potentially interfering wireless devices located in one or more neighboring cell-areas in a wireless network that are operating at the same radio frequency as the base-station.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein identifying potentially interfering wireless devices located in one or more neighboring cell-areas in a wireless network that are operating at the same radio frequency as the base-station comprises identifying one of: one or more base-stations, and one or more user equipment.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating the interference impact from the identified potentially interfering devices to communication between the base-station and the identified plurality of user equipment comprises one of:

estimating the interference impact from the identified potentially interfering devices to downlink communications between the base-station and the identified plurality of user equipment; and

estimating the interference impact from the identified potentially interfering devices to uplink communications between the base-station and the identified plurality of user equipment.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

declaring an interference impact from at least two of the identified potentially interfering devices with respect to one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station where the respective viewsheds for the at least two of the identified potentially interfering devices encompass a location of the one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

declaring an interference impact to communication between the base-station and one of the identified plurality of user equipment from the identified potentially interfering devices with viewsheds that encompass a location of the one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

expanding the identified viewshed by a buffer zone to produce an expanded interference area for each identified potentially interfering devices;

declaring the interference impact from each of the identified potentially interfering devices with respect to each of the identified plurality of user equipment or the base-station further where:

the expanded interference area for at least one of the identified potentially interfering devices encompasses a location of one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the buffer zone is calculated according to one of:

geometrically enlarging the viewshed for each of the identified potentially interfering devices; and

modeling how the interfering radio frequency signal is affected by one or more of: scattering, refraction, diffraction, and absorption, and finding a boundary where the modeled interfering radio frequency signal falls below a threshold.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

calculating a received signal power of a transmission between the base-station and each identified plurality of user equipment; and

computing one of a signal to interference ratio (SIR) and a signal to interference plus signal to noise ratio (SINR) based on the calculated received signal power and the cumulative interference impact for each identified plurality of user equipment.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising assessing an interference impact for communication between the base-station and each of the identified plurality of user equipment.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein assessing the interference impact for communication between the base-station and each of the identified plurality of user equipment comprises one of:

comparing the cumulative interference power at each of the identified plurality of user equipment to a threshold, and ranking the interference impact as acceptable or unacceptable;

comparing one of the SIR and the SINR to a threshold, and ranking the interference impact as acceptable or unacceptable; and

comparing one of the SIR and the SINR to a previously recorded or calculated respective value of one of the SIR and the SINR, and ranking the interference impact as acceptable or unacceptable based on whether degradation or improvement is observed relative to the previous value.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising assessing an aggregate interference impact for all of the identified plurality of user equipment according one of the following calculations:

counting a number of user equipment that exhibit unacceptable interference impact;

counting a percentage of user equipment that exhibit acceptable interference impact; and

counting a number of user equipment corresponding to existing installations of user equipment that exhibit unacceptable interference impact.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor of a system, the instructions cause the system to perform operations comprising:

selecting a cell-area in a wireless network that is or will be served by a base-station operating at a radio frequency;

identifying a plurality of user equipment within the selected cell-area that are or can be served by the base-station;

identifying potentially interfering devices operating at the same radio frequency as the base-station; and

estimating an interference impact from the identified potentially interfering devices to communication between the base-station and each of the identified plurality of user equipment, comprising:

identifying a viewshed for each of the identified potentially interfering devices;

declaring an interference impact from each of the identified potentially interfering devices with respect to each of the identified plurality of user equipment or the base-station where the viewshed for at least one of the identified potentially interfering devices encompasses a location of one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station;

calculating an interference power as a function of a distance between one of the identified potentially interfering devices and one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station where the one of the identified plurality of user equipment or the base-station is within the viewshed of the one of the identified potentially interfering devices; and

calculating a cumulative interference impact based on the declared interference impact for each of the identified potentially interfering devices with respect to one of the identified plurality of user equipment and the base-station.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 16 , wherein identifying the plurality of user equipment within the selected cell-area that can be served by the base-station comprises choosing a plurality of locations within a viewshed of an antenna of the base-station at which the respective plurality of user equipment can be served by the base-station.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 16 , wherein identifying potentially interfering devices operating at the same radio frequency as the base-station comprises identifying potentially interfering wireless devices located in one or more neighboring cell-areas in a wireless network that are operating at the same radio frequency as the base-station.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 16 , wherein estimating the interference impact from the identified potentially interfering devices to communication between the base-station and the identified plurality of user equipment comprises one of:

estimating the interference impact from the identified potentially interfering devices to downlink communications between the base-station and the identified plurality of user equipment; and

estimating the interference impact from the identified potentially interfering devices to uplink communications between the base-station and the identified plurality of user equipment.