GSM Network Monitoring Through Mobile Phones

Abstract

The performance of the GSM network is a matter of concern for GSM network operators as well as GSM network subscribers. Both the concerned parties need to know the behavior of GSM network at any given time. This project focuses on developing an application that will monitor and analyze the performance of GSM network by retrieving information from the GSM network on the mobile phones in real time. It will consist of a phone-end application as well a desktop application. The phone-end application will use the GSM radio in the phone to retrieve different information from the GSM network provider that are categorized in different categories such as network information, signal information, battery information, call information and phone information. The important parameters that will analyze the quality of the network include determining signal strength, signal quality, signal-to-noise ratio, visible base stations, inter-cell and intra-cell handover etc during calls as well as in idle state. Logs will be maintained at the phone-end application and these logs will then be transferred to the desktop application. Desktop application will display all the retrieved information. Furthermore, graphs of signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio and signal quality with respect to time will also be maintained on the desktop-side application. The phone-end application is developed in Symbian OS using C++ while Visual Studio .NET 2005 and Dundas software are used for developing desktop-side application. Log file from the phone-end application is transferred to the desktop-side application using Nokia PC Suite 6.83.