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.