METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ANALYZING AND DESIGNING VARIOUS NETWORK CONFIGURATION SCENARIOS

A method and apparatus are disclosed for analyzing and designing various network configuration scenarios. A modular design allows market assessment and network planning functions to be performed more efficiently and accurately using a single integrated design tool. Wired and wireless access technologies can be modeled and evaluated. In an exemplary implementation for modeling and evaluating fixed wireless access networks, the network planning tool comprises a market scenario planner, a cluster analysis tool, a hub sector planner and a network architecture planner. Generally, the market scenario planner analyzes a listing of potential customers to generate a list of target customers. The cluster analysis tool allows the network planner to identify “clusters” of demand for potential hub placement. The hub sector planner analyzes the hub assignments generated by the cluster analysis tool and allocates each building in a given hub to a particular sector. The network architecture planner processes the output of the hub sector planning tool to (i) generate a complete configuration of the network in terms of equipment requirements at each node (each building, hub and service node); and (ii) compare a set of scenarios using several financial measures.