METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASUREMENT AND IDENTIFICATION OF GSM CO-CHANNEL INTERFERING TRANSMITTERS

摘要

A methodology (and data analysis tool based thereon) for acquisition and analysis of signals in a GSM cellular wireless communication network as part of a network survey (e.g., drive test). Repetitive measurements of the time-of-arrival of FCCH bursts in a given communication channel are made in conjunction with the measurements of the power level and C/I ratio of such FCCH bursts. Successful FCCH burst detection triggers SCH detection/decoding operations for the next frame in the channel, and successful SCH decoding triggers BCCH detection/decoding for subsequent frames in the channel. Further data analysis operations associate SCH BSIC data and possibly BCCH data that are derived from successful SCH and BCCH decoding operations with the corresponding FCCH burst information. With such operations, FCCH bursts are unambiguously associated with a given cell in the GSM network without requiring a priori knowledge of the network configuration or its geographical layout. In fact, it is enough to decode an SCH burst and BCCH burst only once in order to associate all of the FCCH bursts for a given transmitter (Cell, Base Station).