Wave Concepts believes that because of the rapid growth and relative "forgiving" nature of analog cellular, the level of Radio Frequency expertise in the wireless industry has declined in the last several years, allowing "smoke and mirrors" techniques to be introduced when it comes to designing wireless networks. Wave Concepts was founded to provide only the highest quality engineers with extensive backgrounds in wireless communications planning and to get back to the physical nature of radio wave propagation when it comes to planning and optimizing wireless networks.

With the advent of the Personal Communications Services (PCS) industry, came digital wireless-telephony technologies that require small cell networks by nature of their function and relative high frequency compared to cellular. Current network planning tools, while adequate for the "large" cell designs in cellular markets, are no longer a viable solution for planning and optimizing PCS networks. The models employed, generally Cost 231, modified HATA, and sometimes Lee, are invalid for near field predictions where the majority of PCS cells lie, and, because of their empirical nature, are incapable of predicting to the spatial resolutions required to optimize small cell networks. Additionally, these models require time consuming "up-front" drive testing and calibration in order to function. Because no standards exist for this "model tuning" stage, it is up to the individual engineer to make adjustments. Therefore, huge inconsistencies exist between models from market to market and even from cell to cell within a market.

At Wave Concepts, we believe that the planning process is the most important step in the design and optimization of a wireless network. Our extensive background and expertise in communications has allowed us to develop tools and techniques that will minimize time to market by pre-optimizing the network. What this means for you is less time (=money) spent drive testing and "tweaking" your system, and more time generating revenue.

Wave Concepts has developed a new, state of the art, planning tool that addresses all of these issues. This tool is Athena. Athena is a truly predictive tool that requires no up-front drive testing and calibration. There are no "empirical" models to adjust. Athena is solely dependent on the terrain and clutter databases and has been proven to achieve standard deviations of 5dB or less in a study using the US government R-Data. Because of its predictive nature and super accurate diffraction calculations, Athena has a predictive spatial resolution of as high as 30m. Additionally, Athena employs a statistical interference engine which, when used in combination with its communications reliability predictions, can compute the probability of achieving a certain C/N0 (Eb/I0 for CDMA) in the presence of interference at any point. This is something no other tool is currently capable of achieving. Using the results of the interference engine, Athena can show the number of sectors per user at any location, and show which sites/sectors are adding the most noise/interference at that location. Furthermore, Athena is capable of adding noise on a per sector basis allowing the most accurate simulation of a loaded network available. Athena is currently THE ONLY TOOL that can be used to accurately pre-optimize small cell PCS networks.

In conjunction with Athena, Wave Concepts has developed, through years of experience, planning techniques which include the "Targeted Traffic Planning" method and others which will allow engineers to pre-optimize digital networks. We believe that we can add more value to a network by shortening its time to market, pre-optimizing during the planning phase, and eliminating outdated engineering tools and techniques unsuitable for today's technologies.

Wave Concepts personnel are experienced in all aspects of wireless network rollouts, from business case planning, to sweep testing cables. We offer services in network planning, optimization, drive testing, sweep testing, and custom software design. Together with our experience, expertise, and Athena, Wave Concepts offers the skills and tools needed to plan and optimize your wireless network in the least amount of time and with the most cost savings to you. Our experience and expertise in the RF arena will mean fewer planning and optimization mistakes, saving you time and money. Athena will provide extensive time and cost savings by eliminating the lengthy model tuning process, and by planning your system right the first time. We can bring your new network to market faster, or we can optimize your existing network and do it correctly from and RF standpoint.