HK1066076B - Method and system for modeling and managing terrain, buildings, and infrastructure - Google Patents

Description

Method and system for modeling and managing terrain, buildings, and infrastructure

This application claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application 60/268,360 filed 2/14/2001, according to 35U.S. C. § 120.

Cross reference to related application

The present application relates to a device filed by T.S. Rappaport and R.R.Skydrore (volume No. 256015AA), application No. 09/318,841 entitled "Method and System for a building Database manager", T.S. Rappaport and R.R.Skydrore (volume No. 256016AA), application No. 09/318,842 entitled "Method and System for Managing a Real Time of Materials", T.S. Rappaport and R.R.Skydromomore (volume No. 256018AA), application No. 09/318,840 entitled "Method and System for automatic Optimization of communication Position 3D", T.S.Rappaport and R.R.Skydromomore (volume No. 256018AA), application No. 3668 filed by Net and System for automatic Optimization of communication Position 3D ", T.S.Rappap.R.Skydrore and R.S.Skydrore (volume No. 2560032 for communication System), application No. Device No. C.S.S.S.S.S.Rappap.R.Skydromedload, and R.Skydrore (application No. 2560032), application No. 3 D.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.Skydrough.Skydroid and R.Skydroid, application No. 3, application No. 25 AA, application No. 25, communication System for communicating and No. 25, application No. 25, communication System for communicating and No. 2560032, communication System for communicating by communication, communication System for communicating with communication, application No. 2560032, application No. 25, communication No. 25, application No. 3D, application No. 7 No., The application No. 2560033AA entitled "Method and System for Designing or planning a Communication networks components", filed by t.s.application, r.r.skimming and Eric reiffonider, application No. 09/632,853, filed by t.s.rapport and r.r.skidmore (volume No. 2560035AA), application No. 09/633,120, filed by "Improved Method System for Building Database", and filed by t.s.rapport, r.r.skidmore and Gold (volume No. 02560036AA), application No. 09/632,803, filed by "System for influence vision System", filed by Method and System, filed by table of telecommunication, application No. 09/667,6903 ", filed by Method and System, filed by Communication System, pending application No. 3" for Communication networks System, and application No. 3a "Network System for influencing System vision System", filed by Method and application No. 3.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to engineering and geographic information systems for designing and managing communication networks, and more particularly to creating, using and managing three-dimensional (3-D) representations of physical environments including terrain and construction data.

Background

With the increased use of wireless communications, Radio Frequency (RF) coverage within and near buildings and the penetration of signals from an outgoing transmission source through the building have quickly become an important design issue for wireless engineers who must design and configure cellular telephone systems, paging systems, or new wireless systems and technologies such as personal communication networks or wireless local area networks. Designers are often required to determine whether a wireless transceiving location or a base station cell site can provide reliable service throughout a city, office, building, theater, or campus. A common problem for wireless systems is insufficient coverage, or "dead zones" in a particular location, such as a conference room. It is now recognized that indoor wireless PBX (private branch exchange) systems or Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) may become unavailable due to interference from nearby, similar systems. The cost of built-in and micro cell equipment providing wireless coverage at 2 km radius is reduced and the workload of these premises (on-premise) systems is dramatically increased by RF engineers and technicians. Fast engineering and configuration methods for microcells and built-in wireless systems are crucial for cost-effective control.

Analyzing radio signal coverage penetration and interference is a key factor for a variety of reasons. The design engineer must determine whether an existing outdoor large wireless system or large area (macrocell) provides adequate coverage throughout a building or group of buildings (i.e., campus). In addition, the wireless engineer must determine whether the local area coverage can be adequately supplemented by other existing large areas, or whether indoor wireless transceivers or micro-cells must be added. The placement of these cells is crucial from a cost and performance perspective. If an indoor wireless system is designed to interfere with signals from an outdoor large area, the design engineer must predict how much interference can be expected, where within a building or group of buildings it will manifest itself. Also, it is a significant economic factor to provide a wireless system that minimizes device infrastructure costs as well as installation costs. Furthermore, after installation of a system or network, there remains a need to continue managing the installed network in time and space, recording and continuing to edit and modify maintenance records of the system, and tracking expenses, maintenance repairs, and ongoing performance of the system and the components making up the system so that ongoing operational data can be aggregated, understood, aggregated, and used to further build (build-out) the system. In built-in (in-building) and microcell wireless system extensions, these problems must be solved quickly, easily and inexpensively in a systematic, standard and repeatable manner.

There are many Computer Aided Design (CAD) products available on the market to design environments for use in commercial venues or campuses. AutoCAD and AutoCADMap from Autodesk, MapInfo from MapInfo worksite, ArcView from ArcInfo, and Smallworld, general electronics, are examples of powerful CAD and Geographic Information System (GIS) software packages designed to model and represent physical environments. However, none of the foregoing tools provide a method of producing a seamless integrated, three-dimensional digital representation of a physical environment, including terrain, buildings, and the internal structure of buildings. Similarly, WiSE of Lands technology, SignalPro of EDX, PLANET of Mobile Systems International, Wizard of Agilent, Asset of Aircom, and TEMS Light of Ericsson are examples of wireless CAD products that are used to assist wireless engineers in designing and developing wireless communication Systems.

However, in practice, many pre-existing building or campus databases are designed only on paper, or are represented as photographs or bitmaps, because the database of parameters defining the environment does not actually exist. Only recently, it has become possible to obtain very accurate data about the physical characteristics of the terrain, as well as detailed information on the building location and geometry. It is difficult, if not impossible, to collect this disparate information and process this data to plan and implement indoor and outdoor wireless communication systems, and each new environment requires tedious manual data to run with a computer generated wireless predictive model.

The state of the art in creating accurate, efficient three-dimensional digital models of terrain and buildings for the purpose of site-specific propagation models or system design is a few patents directed to the subject matter of the present invention. These patents include U.S. patent 5,491,644 to Pickering et al, U.S. patent 5,561,841 to Markus, U.S. patent 5,987,328 to Ephremeides and Stamatelos, U.S. patent 5,794,128 to Brockel et al, U.S. patent 6,111,857 to Soliman et al, U.S. patent 5,625,827 to Krause et al, U.S. patent 5,949,988 to Feisullin et al, U.S. patent 5,598,532 to Lorin, U.S. patent 5,953,669 to Stratis et al, and U.S. patent 6,044,273 to Tekinay. The above-listed patents disclose various methods and systems that emulate, in some way, a wireless communication system that uses information about the physical environment in which the communication system is located. However, these patents do not disclose any type of asset (asset) management that combines a site-specific environment model with a model of the actual installed equipment infrastructure, nor do they provide any information about the specific format of the digital model of the physical environment or any indication of how to construct a familiar model.

Other patents dealing with asset management and allowing the present invention include U.S. patent 6,047,321 to Raab, U.S. patent 6,058,397 to Barrus et al, U.S. patent 6,067,030 to Burnett et al, U.S. patent 6,223,137 to McKay, U.S. patent 5,523,747 to Wise, and U.S. patent 6,006,171 to Vines. An investigation of the current state of the art regarding graphical and geographic information for telecommunication asset management can be seen in "GIS in telecommunications" published by ESRI Press of Redlands in california in january 2001. None of the above referenced patents or publications contemplate system creation or display in a seamless manner through the use of a set of rules or algorithms for a three-digit digital model of a physical environment, which may include outdoor environments, indoor environments, and underground environments. Moreover, none of the above references allow for the combination of a three-dimensional digital model of the interior building structure with a three-dimensional model of the exterior terrain and building geometry into a database format that also includes specific compositional layout information of the actual physical distribution network.

Moreover, the above-referenced documents do not disclose an asset management method or system that allows a site-specific database model to include a specific representation of a distributed network with components, such as actual physical network components being modeled may be interpreted, maintained, monitored for performance or alarm, and then managed on a component-by-component or system-wide basis interactively using a common database format. While the above referenced patents present difficulties in obtaining such models of urban environments, they do not suggest a systematic, repeatable and fast method or algorithmic approach to creating a three-dimensional model of a combined terrain and building (or other physical environment such as trees, natural or man-made objects, towers, partitions, walls, etc.) so that the completed representation can be stored and viewed in a vector format (vector format) that best achieves planning, configuration, and tracking of maintenance and cost records and ongoing performance data about wireless communication devices, computer network devices, or any form of constructed cable network or distributed network components within the model representing the actual physical environment.

Disclosure of Invention

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a fast and automated method and system for generating a three-dimensional physical digital model of a highly accurate, physical environment, wherein the physical environment may include undulating terrain elevation (elevation) and land use features, building geometry, location and height, objects located near the building, such as cars, trees, and people, and the layout of walls, doors, ceilings, elevators, stairwells, windows, furniture, and equipment located near the building. This unified approach provides important values for communication engineers and provides a significant improvement over the prior art.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an asset management system and method that is capable of representing different physically distributed network communication components within a building, or from outside to inside a building, or within an underground passageway into or out of an external environment, by using the introduced database model, so that ownership data for cost, performance, forecasts, maintenance, and different model networks belonging to different parts on the ground can be processed and aggregated. This novel and valuable asset management system and method further allows the database model of the distributed network to interact with the actual physical network components that are modeled as such to determine performance and alarm events and system or network performance metrics that can be compared, stored, measured, visualized, displayed and aggregated to enhance ongoing management of the enterprise or global telecommunications carrier's distributed communication network.

According to the present invention, information is provided regarding terrain elevation and land use, building location, tower location, and the geometric size, height and internal layout of walls, doors, ceilings, furniture, and other objects located and within a building, wherein the digital information may be in a separate data format or image (presentation) comprising two-or three-dimensional raster or vector images, and may be combined into a single, three-dimensional digital model of the physical environment. The resulting three-dimensional digital model combines various aspects of the physical environment contained within the separate information utilized and is suitable for any form of display, analysis, or archival recording of wireless communication systems, computer network systems, or for civil planning and maintenance purposes. For example, using the method and system of the present invention, an engineer may create a single unified database that includes elevations for outdoor terrain and use environmental data while using building data such as wall locations, window locations, doors, and furniture, among others. For example, this type of unified database may be used to predict system or network performance for wireless networks designed to provide coverage to users inside and outside a building or to provide a mechanism for displaying the physical location of infrastructure assets, such as the physical location of antennas, towers, coaxial cables, amplifiers, both inside and outside a building. Although the three-dimensional digital model constructed in the preferred embodiment of the present invention is intended for use in the simulation of the performance of a wireless or wireline telecommunications system, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art how many other applications may be made for other planning or display using the three-dimensional digital model.

For example, any type of distributed or fixed network equipment (infrastructure equipment) such as air conditioners and pipes, waveguides/conduits and equipment, or electronic conductive systems incorporating transformers and wires that must be physically interconnected in-or between in-and out-of-doors environments can be modeled and managed using the present invention.

Drawings

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is an example of a digital vertical image.

FIG. 2 is an example of a digital elevation model image.

FIG. 3 is an example of a skyhook digital elevation model image.

FIG. 4 is an example of a digital elevation model image of the earth with baldness.

Fig. 5 is an example of an image of the bottom surface of a building.

FIG. 6 is an example of a flooding of engineering digital elevation model images.

Fig. 7 is an example of an echo (clutter) map image.

Fig. 8 is an example of an irregular triangular network image.

Fig. 9 is an example of an irregular triangular network output.

Fig. 10 is a three digit representation of a building according to the present invention.

Fig. 11 is a model of a building with a pitched roof according to the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a top view of the building shown in fig. 11.

FIG. 13 is a three-dimensional representation of a building having an irregular roof.

Fig. 14 is a top view of the building shown in fig. 13.

FIG. 15 is a three-dimensional representation of a building.

Fig. 16 is a cross-sectional view of a three-dimensional architectural model of a building with an irregular roof.

Fig. 17 is a representation of merged three-dimensional building and terrain irregular triangular network information.

FIG. 18 is a flow chart illustrating a general process of querying and extracting information from a three-dimensional model.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of an exemplary configuration of a computing platform.

Detailed Description

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a method for creating, using and managing a three-digit digital model of a physical environment that combines outdoor terrain elevation and land use information, building layout, height and geometry, and internal structure of a building such as walls, floors, windows, and doors. The resulting three-digit digital model represents an environment that seamlessly integrates indoors and outdoors.

A detailed description of a very detailed three-dimensional physical environment is required in order to perform highly accurate site-specific simulations of the performance of a wireless communication system, or to maintain site-specific records of equipment costs, installation costs, repair records or equipment replacements or services, or to monitor or track performance data of a network, or to track archived records of installed equipment at specific point locations in time and space. Until recently, it was not possible to obtain highly accurate geographic data, making it difficult to create very detailed models of physical environments, as a large amount of manual work was typically required. With recent developments in the fields of remote sensing and image processing, high-precision information can be obtained. Such information is available from a variety of vendors and can be provided in several different data formats today. A brief description of the common format currently found is given below.

Historically, ground image information has been readily available in the form of familiar overhead images. In a digital computer, there are two basic different ways to represent images: raster and vector formats. The raster image provides a picture of the environment in the form of an ordered set of color dots called pixels. The pixels are arranged in rows and columns in a two-dimensional grid. Each pixel is associated with a particular value, typically color or brightness. When viewed in its entirety, the pixel grids and their varying colors and brightnesses form a pictorial representation of the physical environment. A typical example of a raster database is a Bitmap (BMP) image, where the color of each point or image pixel is given. In the context of geographic graphic information systems, a raster image is typically composed of pixels whose associated values represent elevation values. For example, a raster image representing Manhattan city may provide a grid of regularly spaced pixels whose values correspond to elevations above sea level at corresponding locations in the real world. In this case the terrain is represented by rectangular barriers, where the elevation of the points of the grid are given. Raster images of terrain or any physical environment may be obtained from satellite images or other antenna imaging techniques. Note that the raster image of the physical environment need not have only elevations of multiple points; it may also have information about soil characteristics, population density, or any other land use parameter. Examples of rasters today include Bitmap (BMP), JPEG file (JPG), markup information file format (TIFF), and targa (tga).

The term vector format is used herein to refer to representations of points in some logical space. In processing three-dimensional vector image formats, three spatial coordinate axes X, Y, Z are typically used to represent points in space. The vector format specifies the boundaries of the physical area being represented. To represent a line, circle or other composite shape, the vector format uses a series of points. For example, typically a line is specified using a start point and an end point, where each point is an X, Y, Z triplet. Polygons and primitive shapes may also be supported in a vector image format and are typically specified by a set of vectors corresponding to the vertices of the multi-morph. Many CAD software tools use a vector file format to represent a physical object or region. In general, the vector format is more economical to store than the raster image format.

Information about the actual outdoor area is typically provided as a raster or vector image format. To obtain this information, remote sensing is typically employed. One of the early and most popular remote sensing methods is aerial photography. As technology advances, remote sensing is being extended from aerial technology to include images of land surfaces collected by electronic sensors sensitive to a wide range of electromagnetic energy, as well as sonar energy. With the development of the field of remote sensing and image analysis, high-precision data representing terrain and buildings of a particular area is now becoming available.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) provides high precision mapping data for land use and terrain elevation, line graphics and high precision image data of the main mapping features. In addition to the USGS, there are many specialized vendors, such as I-cube corporation and EDX corporation, that provide information about terrain, buildings, and ecological data for many cities in the United states. An overview of the common data formats currently available from commercial sources is provided below.

A digital vertical image (as an example given in fig. 1) represents an image of a city or region obtained from an aerial photograph or satellite image. This information is often used as a visual reference for the area under consideration.

Most data formats from USGS are Digital Elevation Model (DEM). DEM is a raster file format consisting of an array of regularly spaced pixels representing the elevation of a ground location. The data is generated from digitized cartographic overlay maps or from scanned national aerial technical program (NAPP) photographs. Typically, USGS DEM can achieve 30 meter accuracy. The vertical accuracy is typically equal to 15 meters. Typically, 30 meters of data provides a two-dimensional data array with a spacing of 7.5 radian-minutes (arc-minutes) in latitude and longitude; it is therefore considered by the general public as a 7.5 point DEM. The USGS DEM is typically used to represent topographical features of a particular area. However, DEMs with accuracies as low as 30 meters do not capture all of the building detail features, and may require other man-made or natural obstacles to planning the wireless network in urban environments. At present, DEMs with good 10 meter accuracy can be used to select areas. Fig. 2 shows DEM of Lake Tahoe regions of california with an accuracy of 10 m x 10 m. Pixels with higher grayscale values appear brighter and represent higher elevations; pixels with lower gray values appear darker and represent lower heights.

Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) digital data is a raster data format generated by the USGS that is derived from subject cover maps registered to a 1: 25000 scale reference map and a limited number of 1: 100000 scale reference maps. The LULC data provides information about urban or construction (build-up) land, agricultural land, pasture, forest, water, marshland, barren, frozen ground, and year-round snow or ice, which is commonly referred to as land usage data. The associated map may display information in five data categories: administrative, hydrological, census county-level divisions, federal road land ownership, and national land ownership. Land use and other ecological data can be critical in relation to wireless communication systems by providing detailed information such as population density or average income level.

A Canopy (Canopy) DEM is a raster image that represents an elevation of a grid as if it were a surface with a thin blanket overlaid over an area. A Canopy DEM consists of an array of regularly spaced elevations. Which includes elevation data for terrain objects such as trees, buildings, and surfaces of the ground. Canopy DEM was developed from aerial technology using automated photogrammetry techniques. A high precision Canopy DEM with a good 1 m x 1 m precision is available in many cities throughout the united states. Canopy DEM can be used to model terrain and buildings for ray-tracing-based prediction techniques, where an accurate model of the physical environment is required. However, Canopy DEM does not distinguish between different obstacles in the environment. For example, Canopy DEM does not distinguish between mountains, trees, or buildings; all physical characteristics of the obstacles and the environment are modeled in view of elevation. FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional view of a Canopy DEM in the city of Chicago.

A bald earth DEM is a raster image similar to a Canopy DEM except that the bald earth DEM does not include the elevation of trees, buildings, or other non-terrain features. A bald earth DEM is created manually by combining Canopy DEM and ground detection data. Low elevation points are captured and interpolated from the Canopy DEM to find the elevation of the terrain except for buildings, trees, or other obstructions. In the present invention, the bald earth DEM is used as a reference to define the height of a building relative to the surface of the local ground, as described below. Currently available bare earth DEMs have an accuracy of 1 meter x 1 meter. Fig. 4 provides an example of an exemplary bald earth DEM in the urban area of chicago.

Building floor and ceiling view (top-print) images may be used in raster and vector image formats and provide a representation of the outline of the exterior walls of a building in a given geographic area. The outline of the outer wall at the base of the building is referred to as the building floor, and the outline of the outer wall at the top of the building is referred to as the ceiling view. Each building floor and ceiling view is represented as a polygon and stores the coordinates of the vertices or edges of the polygon. Building floor image information was developed by manually combining ground survey measurements with Canopy DEM. As described below, the present invention utilizes building floor and ceiling view information in a vector file format to develop a three-dimensional representation of a physical environment. Fig. 5 provides an example of an image of the underside of a building.

Flooded Engineering DEMs (flooded Engineering DEMs) integrate fine details of building height and broad area coverage of bare earth DEMs. The elevation of the building is added to the elevation of the terrain of the bare earth DEM to obtain a flooded engineering DEM. The elevation of the building is obtained by manually combining the building floor information with the Canopy DEM. Flooded engineering DEMs do not include many other obstacles such as trees and other vegetation growth. Currently, flooding engineering DEMs with an accuracy of 1 meter x 1 meter are available, an example of which is provided in fig. 6.

Echo maps (clutter maps) are a vector image format that may be used for wireless communication system planning. The echo map represents a land area (land activity) or a building density in a specific area. The echo map divides the area into different layers, each layer having a different building density and land area. Some propagation prediction tools use echo data and terrain information to characterize the environment. In some cases where a high-precision database is not appropriate, the echo map may provide sufficient information for propagation prediction. Fig. 7 shows an example of an echo map image.

Today, the layout of the three-dimensional internal structure of most buildings is not readily available. However, in the specific invention of pending application 09/318,841, "Method And System for a Building database manager," filed by t.s.rappport And r.r.skidmore (volume No. 256015AA), a System And Method for creating a three-dimensional model of the internal structure of a Building is specified. The description provided in this application is incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention provides a method for combining information about terrain, buildings, and the internal structure of one or more buildings, and from different formats, some of which are listed above, into a single, composite three digit format. This processing includes separately reading and processing information about the terrain, buildings, and the internal structure of the buildings, converting the information into a three-dimensional vector format, and then combining them into a single digital format.

As shown in fig. 8, the present invention uses a vector format known as irregular triangular network (TIN) to represent topographical features. The TIN used to model terrain is a set of adjacent triangles whose vertices represent the elevation of the terrain within a given geographic area. With the present invention, the TIN format may be automatically created by applying one or more of the specialized processing techniques described above to the different raster file formats. There are many different algorithms for creating the TIN associated with the present invention.

The TIN model was developed in the early 70 s of the 20 th century as a simple way to construct a surface from a set of irregularly spaced points. An irregular triangular network of Terrain (TIN) will consist of a non-overlapping network of planar triangular polygons based on irregularly spaced nodes. Irregularly spaced nodes actually mean that no three nodes are on the same line in the TIN model. The plane of each triangle in the TIN forms a representation of the surface of the terrain at the location and, in the context of wireless communication system performance prediction, provides a representation of physical obstructions caused by the elevation of the undulating terrain.

TIN is a vector topology because only a set of nodes and a set of straight lines interconnecting the nodes need to be stored. TIN implementations may be made efficient by placing more nodes in areas of rough terrain and fewer nodes in areas of smooth terrain. By using triangles, areas with relatively flat terrain can be modeled, and coarse terrain can be modeled using smaller triangles. This makes the TIN model very efficient when considering the size of the database. As the number of surfaces that need to be modeled to represent terrain decreases, the computational complexity of the wireless communication system performance prediction model also decreases dramatically because there are fewer obstacles to be considered in the simulation. Therefore, the TIN model is considered a good choice for modeling terrain for a specific point propagation prediction software.

Unlike DEM images, which are readily available from different vendors, topographic data in the TIN format is not readily available and thus the DEM has to be converted to the TIN format. There are many different techniques for converting DEM images to TIN format.

A straightforward way to convert a DEM to a TIN is to use all points in the DEM as points of the TIN and connect all nodes with its two neighbors to form a triangular network. However, this implementation would result in a large number of triangular surfaces in the TIN. For efficient performance of the prediction software, it is desirable to minimize the number of surfaces modeling the environment. To reduce the number of surfaces used to model terrain, irrelevant (non-critical) DEM points need to be filtered out, and only relevant points need to be used to develop the TIN.

There are different algorithms that currently exist to convert DEMs into TINs. Most algorithms use a common approach when evolving from DEM to TIN. First, some "salient" points of the DEM are identified. "salient" points refer to those points that are most useful in delineating a surface and visualizing its salient topological features, such as sharp changes. These points are then triangulated using a triangulation algorithm to make a TIN model of the terrain. A relatively recent approach integrates point selection and triangulation algorithms.

Several algorithms have been proposed for selecting "salient" points from the DEM with minimal loss of topographical information. These methods differ in the criteria for choosing the points in the DEM. Some such methods are used in popular terrain mapping software.

According to Fowler & Little algorithm known to those skilled in the art, only points showing a significant feature of the terrain, such as peaks, deep-brillouin, watershed, and fairway lines, are selected from the DEM. The TIN may be created by connecting the points of these groups using a trigonometric algorithm. However, the Fowler & Little algorithm works well only for certain types of terrain, especially terrain with many abrupt slopes, ridges, and prominent channels.

The Very Important Point (VIP) algorithm uses different criteria in constructing the TIN to determine whether a point from the DEM should be ignored or retained. The VIP algorithm assigns a certain "saliency measure" to all points in the DEM based on the difference in elevation between pixels. When triangulating the DEM, all points below a certain threshold will be ignored according to the "salient point metric". VIP processing provides a more accurate representation of the terrain than Fowler & Little algorithms.

In both cases, the VIP and Fowler & Little algorithms filter out output points in the DEM image that only represent salient features of the terrain (terrain). Once selected, these points are connected together to form a set of planar triangular surfaces to represent the terrain in the TIN. There are many ways to accomplish this triangularization. Various triangulation algorithms may vary in the number of triangles created for a given set of points, the quality of the triangles (boldness or slivers), and the computational complexity of the algorithms. Delaunay triangulation algorithm and Radial Sweep (RSA) algorithm are the two most widely used triangulation algorithms.

The TIN may be generated from the DEM raster image using a combination of VIP or Fowler & Little algorithms with delaunay triangulation or RSA algorithms. Another method for extracting TIN from a raster database is a method that combines a point picking algorithm with a delaunay triangulation algorithm to compose TIN.

Hierarchical trigonometric algorithms are proposed as a general method of modeling 3-D surfaces from 3-D raster databases. This method can be easily adapted to model terrain. Hierarchical trigonometry algorithms use a hierarchy based on nested triangles to triangulate. The triangles may be subdivided hierarchically into nested triangles by minimizing the maximum error of the DEM at each stage. This algorithm allows the user to model any maximum error surface that is desired and provides a second method of generating a TIN version from the DEM raster image.

Yet another way to convert DEMs to TINs is to repeatedly use the delaunay triangulation algorithm along with point extraction of the DEM. This method has the advantages of the delaunay triangulation algorithm and the combination point selection method, allowing the user to develop a TIN representation with a given maximum error. A user who only needs the result of the terrain rough approximation may select a larger value as the maximum error. This will minimize the number of surfaces used to represent the terrain. To obtain a more accurate representation of the triangle, the user may select a very small value as the maximum error to model the terrain.

The present invention incorporates all of the above techniques for creating TINs to enable the conversion of an arbitrary column DEM raster image form to a three-dimensional vector form containing a finite set of planar triangular surfaces whose vertices correspond to the elevations of a selected X, Y or longitude and latitude coordinate system within the physical area represented. Fig. 9 provides an example of a TIN image for a given geographic area. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other techniques not listed here may also be suitable for creating a TIN representation of a physical environment.

The present invention also incorporates the ability to extrapolate three-dimensional representations of the constructed geometry from the different raster and vector file forms previously provided. The resulting constructed three-dimensional representation is in the form of a vector file containing a collection of planar triangular surfaces. The surface of each triangular plane corresponds to an exterior wall of a building, a roof of a building, one or more trees, an obstacle in the environment, or any other physical object or obstacle in the environment that is not directly part of the terrain.

A building can be modeled as a convex polygon contained on a single plane. Until recently, the availability of high-definition geographic data has prevented high-precision three-dimensional modeling of buildings. However, while having the effectiveness of new geographic products such as the building roof and the building floor described above, high accuracy modeling of three-dimensional building databases for urban or suburban environments may also be achieved.

Building roofs in the form of vector images are now commercially available. Because there are no well-accepted standards, different manufacturers offer different forms of building roof vector data, but most share similar characteristics. The different buildings in the building ceiling are typically indexed in the form of a vector file using individual building numbers. Each building roof in turn has its own unique roof index number associated therewith. Information regarding the mapping of rooftop index numbers to building index numbers is typically stored in a separate file. Typically, a building roof is modeled as a horizontal polygon by X and Y coordinate systems stored counterclockwise. Typically, the elevation of each roof from the sea level polygon is stored along with the roof information. The rooftop polygon may have any number of faces depending on the shape of the building being modeled. For example, as shown in fig. 10, consider a cube 5 having four vertical faces 10 and one horizontal top face 12. For such a building, the building roof would have the X and Y coordinates of the top surface polygons 12 and the elevations of the top surface polygons 12 stored with the top surface information. Note that the building roof information does not include any information about the vertical face 10 of the building, which would have to be modeled separately. As will be described later, the present invention teaches and proposes to combine these vertical plane data with top plane data for objects that may be natural or man-made.

For a building 5 having a pitched roof 14 as shown in FIG. 11, the building is similar to having multiple horizontal roofs 12, with the horizontal roofs 12 having different elevations ranging from a minimum elevation to a maximum elevation of the pitched roof. As shown in fig. 12, the building ceiling approximates a series of concentrated horizontal ceiling polygons 12 having different elevations associated therewith.

If the building has different elevations associated with its rooftop outline (e.g., an empire building with a tower-shaped vertical roof), the top model of the building includes three concentric top polygons 12, each of which has a different elevation associated therewith. Consider a building having three top-side polygons 12 of elevations h1, h2, and h3, as shown in fig. 13 and 14. The top surface information will contain three polygons 12 having elevations h1, h2, and h3 associated with each of these polygons.

The present invention uses the building ceiling information and the building floor information to construct a three-dimensional representation of the building. The building bottom surface information models the bottom surface of the building outer wall and provides the foundation elevation of the building. The building will be modeled as a set of horizontal and vertical flat polygonal surfaces.

The building's ceiling information represents the building ceiling as a single or a series of concentric horizontal polygonal surfaces having any number of faces determined by the building shape. The rooftop is modeled as a horizontal polygonal surface with vertex values X, Y and Z, which are obtained from building vertex information. The vertical faces of the building are modeled as rectangular vertical polygonal surfaces. A vertical rectangular polygon may be created for each side of the top surface polygon. The X and Y coordinates describing all four coordinates of the edges of the top surface polygon associated with the vertical surface may be taken from two vertices. The elevation of the top surface is different from the elevation of the vertical surface between the elevation of the foundation as previously given by the bottom surface of the building.

For example, as shown in FIG. 15, consider a top-surface polygon having four vertices 16, 18, 20, and 22. The elevation of the roof is obtained together with information on the roof of the building. The elevation of the building foundation is taken from the bottom surface of the building. The height of the top surface above the bottom surface may be calculated by subtracting the elevation of the foundation from the elevation of the top surface. For each side 24, 26, 28 and 30 of the polygon, a rectangular vertical surface 10 is constructed. For example, for edge 24, a rectangular vertical surface 10 is constructed having vertices 16, 18, 32, and 34. In this manner, a three-dimensional model of the cubic building 5 can be generated.

As shown in fig. 6, a building 5 having roofs of different elevations will have a vertical rectangular polygon 10 associated with each side of all of the roof polygons 12. All vertical polygons are considered to have the same elevation of the foundation. Thus, the building in FIG. 16 will be represented as a set of vertical and horizontal surfaces as shown in FIG. 13.

Using the techniques described above, the present invention can transform building floor and building ceiling information into a three-dimensional polygonal surface representation of a building in any geographic area.

The present invention enables the interior, three-dimensional physical structure of any Building to be represented as a collection of polygonal surfaces by using the technique disclosed in the name of "Method And System for a Building database manager", filed under the name of 09/318,841, (volume No. 256015AA), by t.s.rapppoport And r.r.skidmore.

In most cases, data representing terrain and buildings can be obtained from separate sources. The terrain data is typically obtained as a DEM, which the present invention converts to TIN form using one of the methods described above. Building data is typically available from independent providers in the form of building roofs and floors. As described above, the present invention converts this information into a three-dimensional surface representation of the building. An internal representation of each building physical structure may also be constructed as a three-dimensional digital model within the present invention. The present invention then combines the three-dimensional building exterior geometry information with the three-dimensional TIN surface representation of the terrain to form a single, composite representation of a given geographic area. The resultant three-dimensional terrain-building representation can then be merged with a three-dimensional representation of the building's internal structure to make up a seamless indoor-outdoor representation of any physical environment.

The present invention uses a novel approach to integrate topographical TIN information with three-dimensional building information. In the present invention, the foundations of all vertical surfaces of the building extend downward until they reach the lowest elevation of the terrain adjacent the foundations of the building. Thereafter, when the three-dimensional representation of the building is merged with the terrain TIN information, all vertical surfaces of the building are well connected to the terrain surface. Fig. 17 provides a graphical representation of the building 5 that has been integrated into a simple TIN image. This eliminates any possibility of errors due to mismatches between the three-dimensional representation of the building and the terrain TIN information, which may be due to sharpness errors in the original terrain and/or building information near the building foundation. This will eliminate the potential problem of ray tracing based prediction methods in the performance prediction of wireless communication systems, where only the first surface of the intersection is considered. That is, as in real life, the database model created by our invention suggests that surface information for both terrain and building surfaces can be represented as a surface with no holes between them.

Once the three-dimensional building information is merged with the terrain TIN information, the internal structure of any desired building can be merged within the same database or referenced by a marking process, for example, by using a computer aided design software program (such as AutoCAD or sitepanner), or any other representation of the internal building environment to make up a seamless integrated indoor-outdoor representation of the environment. This may be done by identifying coordinates within the three-dimensional representation of the building and terrain model databases, and then using this coordinate to reference another database, whereby the reference is consistent with the internal representation of each building. This referencing may be done by using a table look-up step whereby the internal model of the building is referenced to a specific graphical, 2-D or 3-D coordinate representation, or the referencing may be done visually or interactively by the user whereby the user can see a specific location of the building outline in the combined terrain and building environment and then click a mouse or some type of selection device can connect the reference of the desired internal building model. In addition, the user may enter a specific coordinate location or range of locations to view the corresponding internal building model. Additionally, the internal building model may be represented in the same vector database produced by the combined terrain and building environment model. The present invention then locates the interior building structure three-dimensional representation and merges it with the combined building-terrain model in an automated or manual manner. The resultant indoor-outdoor-terrain three-dimensional model may then be stored as a single vector file or as a series of database structures or related files containing the coordinates and features of the different three-dimensional planar surfaces that make up the digital model. Note that tunnel environments or underground environments such as building basements or underground city streets, and distributed networks in which components are installed, can also be modeled in the present invention by using the method.

The present invention enables a user to interactively see and arrange a model of the components of a communication system in a three-dimensional structure from any part of a composite representation of any angle or orientation environment, such as the embodiment described in co-pending application 90/318,842 entitled "Method and System for Managing a Real Time Bill of Materials," filed by T.S. Rappaport and R.R. Skidmore (volume No. 256016AA), which is incorporated herein by reference.

Furthermore, the present invention allows for the visualization and recordation of simulated or predicted performance of a communication system that will be designed or has been designed for operation in an actual physical 3-D environment modeled using the techniques described herein, as well as supporting the ability to compare the prediction to actual network or system performance, as well as supporting the placement, display and storage of infrastructure equipment such as communication system components and cables used to create wireless or wired networks. For example, The Performance of such predictions, visualizations, and comparisons useful in The present invention are taught in The co-pending applications such as The application number 09/632,803 filed by T.S. Rappaport, R.R. Skidmore, and Ben Hentry under The name "System and Method for Design, Measurement, Prediction and Optimization of Data Communication Networks" (volume number 2560038aa), The application number 09/318,840 filed by T.S. Rappaport and Roger R.Skidmore under The name "Method and System for Automatic Optimization of Antendionin 3-D" (volume number 2560017aa), and The application number 09/352,678 filed by T.S. Rappaport and Roger R.Skidmore under The name "System for simulation in 3-D" (volume number 2560017aa), and The application number "System for simulation in software" Display, incorporated by reference, such applications are incorporated by The above-referenced by The incorporated by reference, Vample, Inc. 2560018.

The arrangement of infrastructure equipment may include cables, routers, antennas, switches, and the like as previously mentioned by the Wireless Valley communications corporation invention, or as required by the distributed network of components in the physical system. Important information about some or all of the infrastructure equipment modeled by and maintained within the present invention using the database form includes the physical location (the arrangement of the equipment within the database, the location explicitly representing its actual physical arrangement) and data such as equipment suppliers, part numbers, installation maintenance information and history, system or equipment performance and alarm data and history, and cost and wear information for the specific components and subsystems.

The present invention may also enable a user to specify other physical, electrical, mechanical, and aesthetic characteristics of any surface or object within the three-dimensional model. These features include, but are not limited to: attenuation, surface roughness, width, material, emission coefficient, absorption, color, motion, scattering coefficient, weight, damping data, thickness, separation type, ownership, and cost. In addition, information may be stored in database structures that is readily readable or writable in many widely accepted forms, such as: general location data, street address, suite or apartment number, service record, maintenance record, cost or loss record, accounting records such as purchase, maintenance, or life cycle maintenance costs, and general content and records related to any individual surface or building or object or piece of infrastructure equipment within the generated three-dimensional model of the actual physical environment.

Referring next to FIG. 18, a general process for providing, querying and extracting information from a synthetic environment and infrastructure model is illustrated. It is noted that a three-dimensional or series of two-dimensional slices 181 of the specific point environment model is created by using the process defined above, or by co-pending application 09/318,841 filed by t.s.rapport and r.r.skidmore, application No. 2560015aa entitled "Method and System for a Building Database manager" (volume No. 2560015aa and application No. 09/633,120 filed by t.s.rapport and r.r.skidmore, application No. 02560035aa), both applications are hereby incorporated by reference, and then within the invention the communication network is modelled in a specific point, either automatically or manually, whereby, in a specific point database model, the actual physical components used to create the actual physical network are modeled, placed, and graphically, visually, and spatially represented, thus representing their actual true physical arrangement in the actual physical environment, this provides a model of the specific points of the network of interconnected components within the database model.

The infrastructure information is associated with at least some of the network components (infrastructure devices) within the database model, which may be in the form of data records, or files, or textual entries containing infrastructure information that is spatially related individually to individual components within the environment being modeled. That is, by using the present invention, three different types of devices in a network modeled within a city will have three unique sets of infrastructure information records. The infrastructure information records are stored as a list of text or links from the digital information to the image-representing components, or as a data structure within a database format that is marked or linked in some way to a specific component.

In addition, infrastructure information records may be stored outside of the presently described database form, although this would be more cumbersome and require additional overhead to provide the desired links to the actual, unique, specific point components within the database model. As described below, these infrastructure information records provide a critical interaction between the modeling components that are explicitly modeled in location in the asset management system and the actual physical infrastructure devices that are installed or predicted for the actual physical environment. Infrastructure information is shared between a particular point model of the network (with the ability to predict and track cost and maintenance records), the actual network (which is working and may provide measured performance over time), and the network manager (the user who can manage and compare the quality of the ongoing operations and the actual network by using the particular point asset management system described herein). The infrastructure information, including records, can be modified, edited, changed and analyzed by a wide variety of time-based methods, as described below.

The computer program allows for linking and interaction between the modeling components within the modeling network and the actual components that make up the actual physical network, thereby enabling ongoing, periodic, or sporadic communications such that data being measured can be retained and processed in accordance with the present invention. Furthermore, the computer program will allow remote control of the components comprising the physical network. For example, an engineer may remotely adjust the power supplied to a base station antenna in the network in response to an alarm sent by the base station or a remote receiver. In addition, the program itself may also automatically cause such changes based on preprogrammed responses.

The infrastructure information for each actual physical component may be expressed positionally explicitly in the environmental model of the physical environment, and preferably such infrastructure information may be embedded in the environmental model 182, as described above. Embedding of the infrastructure information of the actual component may be done before, at the time of, or after the particular point placement of the modeled component within the database model.

Infrastructure information includes, but is not limited to: a graphical object representing an actual physical location of infrastructure equipment used in an actual communication system, and data describing a brand or type of physical equipment, a physical equipment location (such as a street address, suite or apartment number, depositor or tenant, latitude-longitude-elevation information, floor number, basement or underground sign, GPS reading, etc.), an equipment setting or configuration, a performance metric or performance target desired or specified for the equipment (whereby such desired or specified data is provided by a user or prediction system), a performance metric or performance target desired or specified for a network of which the equipment is a part (whereby such desired or specified data is provided by a user or prediction system), a metric performance metric or network metric as reported by the equipment, a predicted alarm event statistic or outage rate, actual alarm event statistics or outage rates, alarm threshold settings or alarm metrics as reported by equipment or users or predictive systems, equipment orientation, equipment specifications and parameters, equipment manufacturer, equipment serial number, equipment cost, equipment installation cost, ongoing actual equipment maintenance costs and records, predicted ongoing equipment maintenance costs, equipment usage logs, equipment maintenance history, equipment wear and tax records, predicted or measured performance metrics, equipment warranty or authorization information, equipment barcodes and related data, information about methods of communicating with physical equipment to obtain remote monitoring and/or alarms, alarm records, fault records, periodic or continuous performance or equipment status data, previous or current physical equipment users or owners, contact information for equipment queries or problems, information about suppliers, information about equipment status, information on installers, owners, users, renters, lessees, and equipment maintenance personnel, and electronic equipment identification such as radio frequency identifications ("RFIds" or "RF Tags"), internet protocol ("IP") addresses, bar codes, or other graphical wired or wireless addresses or digital signatures.

The term "device" or "component" as referred to above refers to any actual physical object or apparatus, which may be mechanical or electrical or mains in nature, or any architectural or structural element of a distributed network, including but not limited to: wiring, tubing, conduits, trunks, or other distributed components or infrastructure.

While the present invention considers the specific-point database model and asset management for wired or wireless communication systems as the preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that any distributed nature of infrastructure equipment, such as cables, pipelines, or air conditioners, is also taught herein. Some preferred methods of embedding infrastructure information into a specific point environment Model are application 09/318,842 filed by t.s. rapport and r.r.skidmore, application 09/221,985 filed by t.s. rapport and r.r.skidmore, application 09/318,840 filed by t.s. rapport and r.r.skidmore, application 54 filed by "Method and System for Creating a computer Model and measuring Database of a Wireless Communication Network", application 09/632,853 filed by t.s. rapport and r.r.skidmore, application 09/632,853 filed by "Method and System for Automated operation of networking in 3-D", application 09/632,853 filed by t.s Details are described in a co-pending application entitled "Method and System for Designing and deploying a Communication Network work white Considers Components", all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The resulting combined environmental and infrastructure models are then stored 183 on any of a variety of computer media, with the modeling infrastructure and associated infrastructure information for each component embedded in the environmental model in a specific point manner. At any point in time, the combined environment and infrastructure model may be retrieved from the computer media, displayed or processed in a particular point-wise manner, with the actual locations of the components and component interactions being shown within the environment by a computer monitor, printer, or other computer output device, edited using a computer mouse, keyboard, or other now or later known computer input device 187. The editing may involve changing any infrastructure or environmental information in the model.

Further, the combined environmental and infrastructure models stored on the computer media can be queried and searched for specific information 184 by a user through manual interaction or by one or more computer programs that systematically search for specific data through the environmental model (data mining). This provides a new asset management system that allows a large amount of specific point information to be aggregated, recovered, analyzed, compared, or measured for a large number of different networks working throughout the world, whereby each network can be modeled using the specific point environment and infrastructure information.

For example, a large wireless transmission device or real estate company may own hundreds of buildings or playgrounds. A company can design and then manage all aspects of its installed wireless network at each of its playgrounds using the published database models and asset management systems. In particular, a company will model each playground network as a separate file, record, or directory, where each file will include the database model and the specific point modeling method of the consolidated environment and infrastructure information. Preferably, sitepanner (a product of the applicant) will be used to represent each playground network as a separate sitepanner file. By standardizing the disclosed method, each actual network will be modeled using the same unified standards database. As described herein, a network modeled on a computer using the present invention can communicate with actual physical network devices, thereby allowing a company to quickly monitor the performance or alerts of all of its networks, and will allow the company to store and analyze or aggregate all of the network information for all of its playgrounds, on a single computer or location. In addition, by storing predicted and actual cost data associated with each component in the network, and storing predicted and actual ongoing failure rates or costs associated with maintenance of each component in the network, the present invention provides a robust cost analysis that can aid in network management decisions.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, information may be analyzed by identifying specific criteria to search among one or more environmental and infrastructure files. For example, the user of the invention may enter search criteria to find all locations using a particular model number identifying a piece of equipment, or may wish to search all locations where a particular model number is installed. All of the combined environmental and infrastructure models stored on the computer medium may be searched using the provided criteria, or the user may decide to limit the search to a selected subset of the environmental and infrastructure models. For example, a user may decide to search all files on multiple computers, all files on a particular computer, or selected individual files on one or more computers.

To conduct the search, a set of merged environmental and infrastructure models (files) selected by the user will be searched and the environmental model containing the required devices will be displayed to the user on the computer monitor with the required devices highlighted or identified in some manner. In addition, the search criteria may take the form of identifying all numbers of certain types of communication infrastructure equipment, equipment costs, actual or predicted maintenance history, providers, actual or predicted alarm history, actual or predicted performance history, and so forth. In addition, all failures of infrastructure installed within a certain geographic area can be quickly determined, along with the cost per unit and overall equipment, installation, and maintenance. The determination of the communication device warranty deadlines, or the determination of many other such data, such as interrupts and average and worst-case performance metrics, are easily aggregated and recovered. The results of the query are either displayed and edited 187 the combined environment and infrastructure model, or the query results themselves may be stored as a spreadsheet or text computer file 186 on a different computer medium, for example. Furthermore, the results belonging to a particular component will be displayed directly on a particular point representation of the component in the 3-D database. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the form of the search criteria may take many different forms within the scope of the present invention.

Further, the combined environment and infrastructure model stored on the computer media may be automatically searched and edited or updated 188. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the form identifying the particular criteria is selected for searching, and then a relocated set of criteria is selected for application at its location. For example, a user of the present invention may enter search criteria to find a particular device and relocate it with other devices, while any or all of the infrastructure information data related to the device is also relocated. In this case, the particular device found in the searched environment model will be relocated with other devices. This allows the user of the invention to perform a limited or global search and relocate the infrastructure of all or selected environmental and infrastructure models as would be required if the expected or actual changes to the infrastructure were specified by the wireless transmission device. When the search and edit operations are complete, the environment and infrastructure models compiled into the operational results may be stored 183 into the computer media.

Further, the consolidated environment and infrastructure model stored on the computer medium may include a model of infrastructure devices that can communicate and exchange data with the computing platform in real-time. This allows the present invention to measure, predict, display, aggregate, and store device performance, where performance data includes, but is not limited to, explicit performance metrics such as frequency usage (such as space-time records of occupied channels, unused channels, and channel lists associated with different transmitters, where both channel lists and channelization methods or strategies may be monitored, established, or adjusted remotely by the present invention), capacity usage (such as data throughput performance, number of calls or packets that are blocked or delayed, hold time or drop traffic data, instantaneous or time-averaged data transfer, and other metrics indicative of the amount of capacity provided in a particular spatial environment, some of which may be adjusted, monitored, or established by the present invention), received signal strength (RRSI), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), bit Error Rate (BER), load, capacity, Frame Error Rate (FER), frame per second resolution, traffic, packet error rate, packet latency, packet jitter, interference level, power level, quality of service (QoS), data throughput, outage statistics, failure rate, temperature, pressure, throughput rate, environmental conditions, power consumption and fluctuations, product level, storage level, cycle time, or other performance metrics or statistics known now or in the future. Further, by using infrastructure information records, the present invention may be enabled to remotely access devices for the purposes of remote monitoring, fault detection and/or alarm generation, or other forms of communication known now or in the future. For example, the present invention may store desired network operational performance parameters that may be propagated to a particular segment of an actual device, and if the device measures network performance and finds out-of-range performance parameters, an alarm may be triggered and reported to the present invention for readjustment of the network to restore performance to the desired range by the present invention displaying, storing, processing, and possible remote return of the device segment.

Communication between the physical devices and the merged environmental and infrastructure model running on the computer may occur over the internet, through standard communication protocols such as SNMP and TCP/IP, wireless or wired telephone networks, passive or active wireless RF tags, barcode scanning, or any other wired or wireless communication system known now or in the future. This communication may be one-way, where information is only sent from the environmental model to the physical device, and vice versa, or two-way, where information may traverse between the environmental model and the physical device. The communication connection between the particular point environment and infrastructure model and the physical devices represented in the environment and infrastructure model may be established or initiated by any party to the connection, or may be established on a continuous, periodic, or intermittent basis to exchange information 189. This information may take the form of commands or instructions to cause the device to perform certain operations or to cause the database to accept or request certain results. For example, as described above, an engineer may remotely control the physical devices that make up a network by interacting with a model of a particular point environment. This information may also include the results of those operations, as well as the aforementioned metrology device performance, such as the metrics listed above, updated maintenance or device usage information, monitoring logs, cost or price information, physical location information, time, fault or hazard alarms, emergency information, new or updated instruction sets, updated or new device information, or any other form of communication that a device may support, generate, record, or report. Information received from the physical devices over the communication connection is then automatically embedded 189 within the site-specific environment and infrastructure model and may be displayed, aggregated, processed, analyzed, and/or stored. Communication between the specific point environment and infrastructure model and the physical device may be initiated manually by the user of the invention, or automatically and periodically by the environment or physical device, or automatically and periodically by the invention or physical device, or automatically by the physical device as a response to certain preset or experienced or measured events.

For example, a particular device may have the ability to automatically and periodically perform self-diagnostic procedures and report results. In the present invention, as described above, if a device is modeled by a specific point and embedded into an environmental model, it is possible to automatically receive the results of a device diagnostic program from the device and embed the results into the environmental model of the device. The updated environment and infrastructure models are then stored 183 along with the new information embedded in the models. Similarly, a physical device may monitor other important performance metrics such as quality of service (QoS), throughput, or network, and such data may be communicated, received, stored, displayed, and processed by the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 19, one exemplary configuration of a computing platform is shown. A computing platform 191 connected to a computer network, a mobile computer ("laptop") 192 connected to a computer network, and/or a palmtop 193 (e.g., Palm Pilots, pocketpcs, etc.) may be used to create, display, edit, search, and store the merged environment and infrastructure models discussed above. Computing platforms 191, 192, 193 may share the environmental and infrastructure models through the internet (or other network means such as leased line or satellite connection) 197. This allows computing platforms, such as different regions or cities 199, 200, that are geographically located at different locations to share access to the environment and infrastructure models. For example, the computer 198 connected to the computer network may create, display, edit, search, and store the merged environmental and infrastructure models of the other computers 191, 192, 193 on the computer network. In a similar manner, mobile computing platforms 194, 195 connected to some form of wireless network 196, such as a wireless local network, a cellular or personal communication system network, or other wireless communication network known now or in the future, may have access to the Internet 197 and may also have access to and share environmental and infrastructure models. In these cases, a user of the present invention using client 198 connected to the Internet 197 in some manner may access the available consolidated environment and infrastructure model stored in the other computing platforms 191, 192, 193, 194, 195. Thus, the environment and infrastructure models located on even geographically remote computing platforms accessible via the Internet may be included in the aforementioned query, search and relocation, and remote monitoring operations.

Thus, the powerful and novel capabilities provided by the present invention are the ability to create an asset management system that can mine out information stored in files, each of which uses a unified database, so that a user can determine the amount of specific information about the placement of a particular component or some different distributed network, predict performance, measure performance, maintain history, cost history, and troubleshoot data. A separate database form may be used to create knowledge in a collection of many different communication systems or networks each designed in a different physical location in the world, each using the same database standards disclosed in this patent. For example, a user of the current invention would be able to query the files of wireless communication networks designed in different cities on the fly, whereby each city would have the terrain, outdoor and indoor environment represented in the published database format. The same format would be a model of the physical location of installed cables, antennas, base stations, switches, routers, leaky feeders, and all other infrastructure needed to build up a functioning communication network, and infrastructure components placed in a 3-D environmental model, each located approximately at the exact location where the actual asset is physically located. In addition, the actual measured performance of the network (as measured by well-known commercial products for Wireless and wireline networks and as contemplated by the patent applications of Wireless Valley communications, Inc.) and the predicted performance of the network as expected by current products and through previous patents published by Wireless Valley communications, Inc., will also be stored in this 3-D environment model. Thereafter, by accessing many different files created as different cities or city sections, the computer program or database system will produce a series of reports such as computer files, printed forms, printed lists or visual slide presentations or graphical output of the locations of particular types of cables throughout the world's communication network, or the type of frequency plan used both inside and outside the building. Similarly, it may be possible, by using the contemplated invention, to quickly determine the overall cost of the infrastructure of an installed network, or to determine the age of the loss or the total length of a particular type of cable used in the building of a global network. Furthermore, our invention provides the ability to keep track of infrastructure assets, as well as their ongoing cost, performance, wear and maintenance of the physical location of the data, in a separate modeling and data mining environment.

The present invention represents a significant improvement over the prior art in that it automates the creation of seamless three-dimensional computer representations of indoor-outdoor environments with modeled terrain and man-made and natural features, and supports the ability to store measured or predicted data and their comparisons, as well as cost and maintenance data and other spatially accurate and important aspects of the communication infrastructure. The present invention stores representations of infrastructure and data of myriad important performance, cost, wear, maintenance, and operation in vector data form, and provides for interacting, reading, writing, storing, gathering information in a three-dimensional environment, and visualizing the specific infrastructure and its supported networks.

While the invention has been described in terms of its preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. For example, while a communication network is contemplated, it should be apparent that other types of infrastructure, such as plumbing or electrical utilities or structural cabling, may also be represented using similar concepts and principles as described herein.

Claims (114)

1. A network management system for a wireless communication network, the system comprising:

a plurality of components distributed within a physical environment, at least one of the plurality of components being used to provide infrastructure necessary for wireless communications;

at least one measuring device for measuring at least one wireless communication performance data belonging to said wireless communication network;

one or more computer platforms in communication with at least one of the plurality of components, a computerized specific point model of the physical environment displayed thereon, the computerized specific point model displaying on a display a representation of the physical environment with computer representations of the plurality of components distributed in the display of the physical environment, and information pertaining to the at least one wireless communication performance data in the physical environment, the one or more computer platforms providing at least one of:

(I) an indication indicating that the at least one wireless communication performance data measured by the at least one measuring device is satisfactory or unsatisfactory in a wireless communication network; or

(II) control signals or instructions to adjust one or more parameters of one or more of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment.

2. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one measurement device is located within the physical environment.

3. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one measurement device is identical to the at least one of the plurality of components to provide an infrastructure for wireless communication.

4. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one measurement device is included as part of the at least one of the plurality of components to provide an infrastructure for wireless communication.

5. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is an antenna direction.

6. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a power of transmission.

7. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a data rate.

8. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a modulation method.

9. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is bandwidth.

10. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a transmit frequency.

11. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a reception frequency.

12. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the performance data is signal strength.

13. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the performance data is interference or noise.

14. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the performance data is a signal-to-interference ratio.

15. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the performance data is data throughput.

16. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the performance data is a power level or a state.

17. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the performance data is quality of service.

18. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the performance data is data latency.

19. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the performance data is traffic or capacity utilization.

20. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide (I) an indication that the at least one performance data measured by the at least one measurement device is or is not satisfactory for a particular user in a wireless communication network, and (ii) an indication of a value of the at least one performance data.

21. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide (I) an indication that the at least one performance data measured by the at least one measurement device is or is not satisfactory for some or all users in a wireless communication network, and (ii) an indication of a value of the at least one performance data.

22. The network management system of claim 1, further comprising means for selecting a level of satisfactory or unsatisfactory performance for the performance data for one or more users in the wireless communication network.

23. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one or more computer platforms provide (II) a control signal or indication for adjusting one or more parameters of one or more of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment.

24. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the display displays at least a portion of one or more building plans for one or more buildings and one or more of the following:

a representation of the locations of the plurality of components and the one or more building plans or the at least a portion of the one or more buildings, and

a representation of the at least one or more wireless communication performance data and the one or more building planes or the at least a portion of the one or more buildings.

25. The network management system of claim 1, further comprising an indicator that provides an indication of the value or acceptability of the at least one wireless communication performance data.

26. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the indicator is an alarm.

27. The network management system of claim 25, wherein at least one of the one or more computer platforms manually or automatically corrects or issues one or more (II) control signals or indications to adjust one or more parameters of one or more of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment.

28. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more computer platforms is remote from the plurality of components.

29. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer platforms providing (II) one or more control signals or indications to adjust one or more parameters of one or more components of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment are remote from the plurality of components.

30. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one wireless communication performance data is for one or more users of a wireless communication network.

31. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the site-specific model of the physical environment can add or subtract infrastructure information before, during, or after placing the representations of the plurality of components within a computerized site-specific model.

32. The network management system of claim 1, further comprising means associated with one or more of the computer platforms for storing, transmitting, aggregating, analyzing, displaying, or retrieving predictive or measurement information pertaining to a wireless communication network, wherein the predictive or measurement information is selected from the group consisting of maintenance data, performance data, cost data, alarm data, installation data, infrastructure data, loss data, and ownership data.

33. The network management system of claim 1, further comprising means associated with one or more of said computer platforms for generating one or more reports pertaining to predicted or measured information for a wireless communication network, wherein said reports are selected from the group consisting of computer files, tables, lists, slides, and graphical outputs.

34. A network design and management system for a wireless communication network, comprising:

one or more computer platforms displaying thereon a computerized platform-specific point model of a physical environment, the computerized platform-specific point model having a representation of the physical environment and a computer representation of a plurality of components distributed within the physical environment, at least one or more of the one or more computer platforms providing a prediction of one or more wireless communication performance data in accordance with the computerized platform;

a plurality of physical components distributed or distributable within the physical environment represented by the computerized particular point model, at least some of the plurality of physical components corresponding to at least some of the plurality of components represented in the computerized particular point model of the wireless communication network, at least one of the plurality of physical components being used to provide infrastructure for wireless communication; and

at least one measuring device for measuring at least one wireless communication performance data belonging to said wireless communication network,

wherein at least one of the one or more computer platforms is in communication with at least one of the plurality of physical components and provides at least one of:

(I) an indication that the at least one wireless communication performance data measured by the at least one measuring device is satisfactory or unsatisfactory in a wireless communication network; or

(II) control signals or instructions to adjust one or more parameters of one or more of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment.

35. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the computerized site-specific model is modifiable with the one or more computer platforms.

36. The network design and management system of claim 34, wherein the display displays at least a portion of one or more building plans for one or more buildings and one or more of:

a representation of the locations of the plurality of components and the one or more building plans or the at least a portion of the one or more buildings, and

a representation of the at least one or more wireless communication performance data and the one or more building planes or the at least a portion of the one or more buildings.

37. The network design and management system of claim 34 wherein one or more of the plurality of components represented in the computerized representation of the wireless communication network has at least one of cost data, alarm data, maintenance data, ownership data, performance data, installation data, infrastructure data, loss data, and device settings related thereto.

38. A network design and management system according to claim 34 wherein one or more features of the computerized, site-specific model have values or attributes assigned thereto that affect one or more wireless communication performance data.

39. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the at least one measurement device is located within the physical environment.

40. A network design and management system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one measurement device is the same as the at least one of the plurality of components providing the infrastructure for wireless communication.

41. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the at least one measurement device is included as part of the at least one of the plurality of components used to provide an infrastructure for wireless communication.

42. The network design and management system of claim 34, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is antenna direction.

43. A network design and management system as recited in claim 34, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is transmitted power.

44. A network design and management system as recited in claim 34, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a data rate.

45. A network design and management system as recited in claim 34, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a modulation method.

46. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is bandwidth.

47. A network design and management system as recited in claim 34, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a transmit frequency.

48. A network design and management system as recited in claim 34, wherein the parameter to be adjusted is a receive frequency.

49. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the performance data is signal strength.

50. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the performance data is interference or noise.

51. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the performance data is a signal to interference ratio.

52. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the performance data is data throughput.

53. The network management system of claim 34 wherein the performance data is a power level or state.

54. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the performance data is quality of service.

55. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the performance data is data latency.

56. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the performance data is traffic or capacity utilization.

57. The network design and management system of claim 34, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide (I) an indication to one or more particular users in the wireless communication network that the at least one performance data measured by the at least one measurement device is or is not satisfactory, and (ii) an indication of a value of the at least one performance data.

58. A network design and management system according to claim 34, further comprising means for selecting a satisfactory or unsatisfactory level for the wireless communication performance data for one or more users in a wireless communication system.

59. The network management system of claim 34, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide (II) a control signal or indication for adjusting one or more parameters of one or more of the plurality of physical components distributed within the physical environment.

60. A network design and management system according to claim 34, further comprising an indicator providing an indication of the value of the at least one performance data.

61. A network design and management system according to claim 60 wherein the indicator is an alarm.

62. The network design and management system of claim 60, wherein at least one of the one or more computer platforms manually or automatically corrects or issues one or more (II) control signals or indications to adjust one or more parameters of one or more of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment.

63. The network design and management system of claim 62, wherein the at least one of the one or more computer platforms is remote from the plurality of physical components.

64. The network design and management system of claim 59, wherein the one or more computer platforms providing one or more (II) control signals or indications to adjust one or more parameters of one or more components of the plurality of physical components distributed within the physical environment are remote from the plurality of physical components.

65. A network design and management system according to claim 34, wherein the at least one wireless communication performance data is for one or more users of a wireless communication network.

66. A network design and management system according to claim 34 wherein the site-specific model of the physical environment may add or subtract infrastructure information before, during, or after placing the computer representations of the plurality of components within a computerized site-specific model.

67. A network design and management system according to claim 34, further comprising means associated with one or more of the computer platforms for storing, transmitting, aggregating, analyzing, displaying or retrieving forecast or measurement information pertaining to a wireless communication network, wherein the forecast or measurement information is selected from the group consisting of maintenance data, performance data, cost data, alarm data, installation data, infrastructure data, loss data, and ownership data.

68. The network design and management system of claim 34, further comprising means associated with one or more of said computer platforms for generating one or more reports pertaining to predicted or measured information for a wireless communication network, wherein said reports are selected from the group consisting of computer files, tables, lists, slides, and graphical outputs.

69. A network design and management method for a wireless communication system, comprising the steps of:

loading geographic information system data into a database;

generating a specific point model using the input information system data;

assigning a plurality of values and parameters to a plurality of attributes of the input geographic information system data of the particular point model;

selecting and placing a plurality of modeled radio frequency devices within the particular point;

simulating performance data comprising the quality of service provided by the plurality of modeled radio frequency devices and the plurality of values and attributes of the specific point model, wherein the simulating step simulates indoor-outdoor network performance.

70. A method for managing a wireless communications network comprised of a plurality of components distributed within a physical environment, at least one of said plurality of components being used to provide infrastructure necessary for wireless communications, the method comprising the steps of:

measuring at least one wireless communication performance data belonging to a wireless communication network with at least one measuring device; and

providing one or more computer platforms on which a computerized, specific-point model of the physical environment is displayed with at least one of:

(I) an indication indicating that the at least one wireless communication performance data measured by the measurement device is or is not satisfactory in a wireless communication system; or

(II) control information or instructions for adjusting one or more parameters of one or more of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment,

at least one of the one or more computer platforms is in communication with at least one of the respective components;

the computerized specific point model displays on a display a representation of the physical environment with a computer representation of the plurality of components distributed in the representation of the physical environment and information pertaining to the at least one wireless communication performance data in the physical environment.

71. The method of claim 70, wherein the parameter to be adjusted in the providing step is selected from the group consisting of transmitter power, transmit frequency, receive frequency, signal strength, antenna direction, transmitted power, data rate, modulation method, bandwidth, interference or noise, signal-to-interference ratio, data throughput, power level or state, quality of service, data latency, traffic or capacity utilization.

72. The method of claim 70, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide an indication in providing step (I) that the at least one wireless communication performance data measured by the at least one measuring device is satisfactory or unsatisfactory for a particular user in the wireless communication network, and an indication that the at least one wireless communication performance data is satisfactory.

73. The method of claim 70, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide an indication in providing step (I) that the at least one wireless communication performance data measured by the at least one measuring device is satisfactory or unsatisfactory for some or all users in the wireless communication network, and an indication that the at least one wireless communication performance data is indicated.

74. The method of claim 70, further comprising the step of: selecting a level of satisfactory or unsatisfactory performance of the wireless communication performance data for one or more users in a wireless communication network.

75. The method of claim 70, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide a control signal or indication in providing step (II) for adjusting one or more parameters of one or more components of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment.

76. A network design and management method for a wireless communication network, comprising the steps of:

designing or modifying, on one or more computer platforms, a computerized specific-point model that uses a computer representation of a plurality of components distributed within the representation of the physical environment to display on a display a representation of the physical environment within which the wireless communication network is to be or has been deployed, wherein one or more components of the plurality of components represented in the computerized specific-point model have performance data associated therewith;

distributing a plurality of physical components within the physical environment represented by the computerized particular point model, at least some of the plurality of physical components corresponding to at least some of the plurality of components represented within the computerized particular point model, at least one of the plurality of physical components being used to provide an infrastructure for wireless communication;

measuring, with at least one measuring device, at least one wireless communication performance data pertaining to performance encountered by one or more users in a wireless communication network; and

providing at least one of the one or more computer platforms with at least one of:

(I) an indication that the at least one wireless communication performance data measured by the measurement device is satisfactory or unsatisfactory to one or more users in a wireless communication network; or

(II) control signals or instructions to adjust one or more parameters of one or more of said plurality of components distributed within said physical environment, and

at least one of the one or more computer platforms is in communication with at least one of the plurality of physical components.

77. The method of claim 76, wherein the designing step is performed during the designing or modifying step.

78. The method of claim 76, wherein the modifying step is performed during the designing or modifying step.

79. The method of claim 76, further comprising the step of: predicting, with at least one of the one or more computer platforms, one or more wireless communication performance data based on the computerized, specific-point model.

80. The method of claim 76, wherein the predicting step is performed during the designing or modifying step.

81. The method of claim 76, wherein the at least one of the plurality of components represented in the computerized representation of the wireless communication system provided in the designing or modifying step has at least one of cost data, infrastructure data, alarm data, maintenance data, ownership data, performance data, installation data, wear data, device settings related thereto.

82. The method of claim 76, wherein the parameter to be adjusted in the providing step is selected from the group consisting of transmitter power, transmit frequency, receive frequency, signal strength, antenna direction, transmitted power, data rate, modulation method, bandwidth, interference or noise, signal-to-interference ratio, data throughput, power level or state, quality of service, data latency, traffic or capacity utilization.

83. The method of claim 76, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide an indication in providing step (I) that the at least one wireless communication performance data measured by the at least one measuring device is satisfactory or unsatisfactory for a particular user in the wireless communication network, and an indication that the at least one wireless communication performance data is satisfactory.

84. The method of claim 76, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide an indication in providing step (I) that the at least one wireless communication performance data measured by the at least one measuring device is satisfactory or unsatisfactory for some or all users in the wireless communication network, and an indication that the at least one wireless communication performance data is satisfactory.

85. The method of claim 76, further comprising the step of: selecting a level of satisfactory or unsatisfactory performance of the wireless communication performance data for one or more users in a wireless communication network.

86. The method of claim 76, wherein the one or more computer platforms provide a control signal or indication in providing step (II) for adjusting one or more parameters of one or more of the plurality of components distributed within the physical environment.

87. A method of wireless network asset management, the method comprising the steps of:

storing, sending or retrieving information pertaining to at least two different distributed network infrastructure devices, the information selected from the group consisting of installation data, performance data, cost data, loss data, ownership data, alarm data, infrastructure information, and maintenance data; and

selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating or analyzing selection information from the at least two different distributed networks,

wherein each of the distributed network infrastructure devices is represented in a specific-point computer database model having representations of the physical locations and interconnections of the infrastructure devices stored therein.

88. The wireless network asset management method of claim 87, wherein said performance data comprises at least two of predicted performance data, desired performance data, and measured performance data.

89. The wireless network asset management method of claim 88, further comprising the step of: comparing at least two of the predicted performance data, the desired performance data, and the measured performance data.

90. The wireless network asset management method of claim 87, wherein the step of selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating or analyzing selection information from said at least two different distributed networks comprises the steps of: comparing the selected information from at least the first and second of the at least two different distributed networks.

91. The wireless network asset management method of claim 87, wherein said performance data comprises a performance metric selected from the group consisting of frequency utilization, capacity utilization, received signal strength, signal-to-interference ratio, signal-to-noise ratio, bit error rate, load, capacity, frame error rate, frame accuracy per second, traffic, packet error rate, packet latency, packet jitter, interference level, power level, outage statistics, failure rate, quality of service, data throughput, temperature, pressure, flow rate, environmental conditions, power consumption and fluctuations, production level, storage period, cycle time, alarm threshold settings, alarm metrics, and alarm records.

92. The wireless network asset management method of claim 87, wherein the infrastructure information comprises information selected from the group consisting of device branding, device type, device settings, device configuration, device orientation, device specification, device parameters, device manufacturer, device usage records, device licensing information, information about methods used to communicate with devices, device users, and device owners, device exposure information, device lessors, device tenants, predicted device costs, actual device costs, predicted device failure rates, actual device failure rates, predicted device maintenance or repair costs, actual device maintenance or repair costs, and device identification.

93. The wireless network asset management method of claim 87, further comprising the step of: controlling at least one component of the two different distribution networks from a location remote from the two different distribution networks.

94. A method for generating a computerized model of an environment, the environment comprising terrain and at least one building, wherein the terrain surrounds the at least one building, the terrain comprises a plurality of different objects and features therein, each of the objects in the terrain has attributes that affect performance of a distributed network, and the at least one building has a plurality of different objects therein, each of the objects in the building has attributes that affect performance of the distributed network, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining a terrain model for the terrain, the terrain model being represented by an irregular triangular network;

obtaining a building model of the at least one building, the building model being in a vector format compatible with the irregular triangular network; and

combining the terrain model and the building model to form a composite three-dimensional terrain-building representation, the combining step locating the building model within the terrain model such that the outer edges of the building are located within the terrain.

95. The method of claim 94, wherein the combining step changes the building model to a portion of the terrain model.

96. The method of claim 94, wherein said distributed network infrastructure components are represented within said computerized environmental model in a graphical and electronic attribute in a particular point manner.

97. The method of claim 94, further comprising the step of: one or more of wireless performance prediction or measurement, or comparison, is provided for a wireless communication network operating within or outside a building.

98. The method of claim 94, further comprising the step of: providing one or more of cost data, alarm data, infrastructure information, maintenance data, wear data, installation data, performance data, and ownership data pertaining to at least one portion of the distributed network.

99. A system for generating a computerized model of an environment, the environment comprising terrain and at least one building, wherein the terrain surrounds the at least one building, the terrain comprises a plurality of different terrain features, each having attributes that affect performance of a distribution network, and the at least one building has a plurality of different objects therein, each object having attributes that affect performance of the distribution network, the system comprising:

means for obtaining a terrain model for the terrain, the terrain model being represented by an irregular triangular network;

means for obtaining a building model of the at least one building, the building model being in a vector format compatible with the irregular triangular network; and

means for combining the terrain model and the building model to form a composite three-dimensional terrain-building representation, wherein the building model is positioned within the terrain model such that an outer edge of the building is located within the terrain.

100. The system of claim 99, wherein the distributed network infrastructure components are graphically and electronically represented within the computerized environmental model in a point-specific manner.

101. The system of claim 99 wherein the means for combining the terrain model and the construction model changes the construction model into a portion of the terrain model.

102. The system of claim 99, further comprising means for: for providing one or more of a wireless performance prediction or measurement, or comparison, for a wireless communication network operating within or outside a building.

103. The system of claim 99, further comprising means for: for providing one or more of cost data, alarm data, loss data, installation data, infrastructure information, maintenance data, performance data and data pertaining to at least a portion of the distribution network.

104. A wireless network asset management system, comprising:

means for storing, transmitting or retrieving information pertaining to at least two different distributed network infrastructure devices, the information selected from the group consisting of installation data, performance data, infrastructure information, owner data, cost data, loss data, alarm data, and maintenance data; and

means for selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating or analyzing the selection information from the at least two different distributed networks,

wherein each of the distributed network infrastructure devices is represented in a specific-point computer database model having representations of the physical locations and interconnections of the infrastructure devices stored therein.

105. The wireless network asset management system of claim 104, wherein said performance data comprises performance data selected from the group consisting of frequency utilization, capacity utilization, received signal strength, signal-to-interference ratio, signal-to-noise ratio, bit error rate, load, capacity, frame error rate, frame accuracy per second, traffic, packet error rate, packet latency, packet jitter, interference level, power level, outage statistics, failure rate, quality of service, data throughput, temperature, pressure, flow rate, environmental conditions, power consumption and fluctuations, production level, storage period, cycle time, alarm threshold settings, alarm metrics, and alarm records.

106. The wireless network asset management system of claim 104, wherein said performance data comprises at least two of said predicted performance data, desired performance data, and measured performance data.

107. The wireless network asset management system of claim 106, further comprising means for comparing at least two of said predicted performance data, desired performance data, and measured performance data.

108. The wireless network asset management system of claim 104, wherein said means for selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating or analyzing selection information from said at least two different distributed networks comprises means for comparing selected information from at least first and second of said at least two different distributed networks.

109. The wireless network asset management system of claim 104, wherein the infrastructure information comprises information selected from the group consisting of device branding, device type, device settings, device configuration, device orientation, device specifications, device parameters, device manufacturer, device usage records, device licensing information, information about methods used to communicate with devices, device users, and device owners, device exposure information, device renters, device tenants, predicted device costs, actual device costs, predicted device failure rates, actual device failure rates, predicted device maintenance or repair costs, actual device maintenance or repair costs, and device identification.

110. The wireless network asset management system of claim 104, further comprising means for controlling at least one component of said two different distributed networks from a location remote from said distributed networks.

111. A wireless network asset management method comprising the steps of:

storing, sending or retrieving one or more prediction and measurement information belonging to distributed network infrastructure equipment, the information selected from the group consisting of cost data, alarm data, maintenance data, installation data, loss data, performance data, and owner data;

selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating, or analyzing selection information from the distributed network; and

comparing the prediction information with the measurement information,

wherein the distributed network infrastructure devices are represented in a specific-point computer database model having representations of physical locations and interconnections of the infrastructure devices stored therein.

112. A wireless network asset management system, comprising:

means for storing, transmitting or retrieving information pertaining to distributed network infrastructure equipment, said one or more prediction and measurement information being selected from the group consisting of cost data, alarm data, maintenance data, performance data, owner data;

means for selectively retrieving, displaying, aggregating or analyzing selected information from the distributed network; and

means for comparing the prediction information and the measurement information,

wherein the distributed network infrastructure devices are represented in a specific-point computer database model having representations of physical locations and interconnections of the infrastructure devices stored therein.

113. An infrastructure management tool for a wireless communication network, comprising

One or more specific-point computerized models representing one or more physical environments, the one or more specific-point computerized models comprising representations of a plurality of distributed components that are at least part of a wireless communications network distributed within a physical environment, the one or more specific-point computerized models comprising one or more predictive and measurement information selected from the group consisting of cost data, alarm data, maintenance data, performance data, and ownership data;

means for identifying criteria to be searched within the one or more particular points computerized models; and

means for applying placement criteria to place identified criteria to be identified by the identifying means.

114. An infrastructure management method for a wireless communication network, comprising

Providing access to one or more specific-point computerized models representing one or more physical environments, the one or more specific-point computerized models comprising representations of a plurality of distributed components being at least a part of a wireless communication network distributed within the physical environments, the one or more specific-point computerized models comprising one or more predictive and measurement information selected from the group consisting of cost data, alarm data, maintenance data, performance data, and ownership data;

identifying criteria to be searched within the one or more particular points computerized models; and

applying placement criteria to place the identified criteria to be identified by the identifying step.