Methods and apparatus for planning wireless data networks using analytical modeling of user level performance

Techniques and systems for planning of wireless networks are described. A system according to an aspect of the present invention receives inputs describing traffic statistics for a wireless network and computes network specifications. The system uses the traffic statistics and network specifications as inputs to a computationally tractable model used to compute parameters for the user level performance of the wireless network. The model may suitably be a processor sharing queuing model. The model employed by the planning system allows analytical solution for the desired user level parameters, given the characteristics and conditions entered as inputs and the intended network layout characteristics. Once a set of user level performance parameters has been computed, the values of the parameters are examined to determine if they meet predetermined requirements, in an iterative process continuing until a set of specifications has been developed that produces parameters meeting the requirements.