GSM Field Suite - Android tools for drive testing, coverage planning and field work

Tools
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Hi everyone,

I work in telecom field operations and I’ve been developing a few Android and web tools for tasks I regularly deal with on site.

The project is called GSM Field Suite.

The idea is simple: have lightweight tools that are quick to use in the field, without needing to open a full professional platform every time.

GSM Drive Test

This is an Android app for quick LTE/5G measurements.

It can be used for basic drive tests, walk tests and site checks, with information such as:

  • RSRP
  • RSRQ
  • SINR
  • Cell information
  • Network information
  • Measurement recording
  • PDF export
  • KMZ export

It’s not intended to replace TEMS or Nemo. I mainly use it as a quick field tool when I want to check a site or record measurements directly from a phone.

GSM Azimuth Checker

This one is made for checking antenna direction and sector azimuth.

Typical use cases are antenna installation, site acceptance, maintenance or simply checking if a sector is pointing where it should.

GSM Coverage Planner

A simple tool for quick coverage estimations.

I use it mainly to get a first idea of the possible coverage from a location before going deeper into RF planning.

Again, it’s not meant to replace software such as Atoll. It’s more for quick checks, site visits and first estimations.

Web tools

I’m also adding several browser-based tools to the same website, including:

  • RSRP / RSRQ / SINR tools
  • VSWR calculator
  • EIRP calculator
  • Link budget
  • dBm / Watt conversion
  • LTE EARFCN
  • 5G NR-ARFCN
  • Band and frequency tools
  • Antenna downtilt tools
  • Coverage tools

Everything is available here:

I’m still working on the apps and adding features, so I’d be interested in feedback from people working in RF, RAN, drive testing, optimization or field maintenance.

If you try any of the tools, let me know what you would change, add or remove.

I’m especially interested in features that would actually save time during site work.

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The single feature that saves the most field time is trustworthy measurement provenance, and it’s the one most phone-based tools skip. On a stock non-rooted Android you’re reading modem-reported values through the RIL/TelephonyManager path, already filtered and rate-limited, not raw DIAG, and SINR in particular is populated inconsistently across Qualcomm, MediaTek and Exynos. If a sample isn’t stamped with its exact timestamp and value source, you can’t defend it later and you end up redoing the walk. Stamp both on every record.

Second, enforce 3GPP validity ranges at capture, not in post-processing. Reject out-of-range RSRP, RSRQ, SINR and PCI at entry so a bad sample never enters the log. The measurement bounds are in TS 36.133 and TS 38.133, and PCI range and modulo structure in TS 36.211 and TS 38.211. That alone kills most of the garbage that shows up in field data.

Third, capture PCI and NCI, not just serving-cell RF. If you log neighbour PCIs co-observed in the same bin, you can flag collision, confusion and mod-3/mod-6/mod-30 conflicts on the spot, which is where the real optimization time goes. Without PCI it’s a signal-strength logger, not a drive-test tool.

Two smaller ones. On the azimuth checker, correct for magnetic declination, because the magnetometer reads magnetic north while azimuth is referenced to true north, and that offset is a classic acceptance-report error. And stamp GPS horizontal accuracy on every point, since a sample taken at 30 m accuracy but plotted as if it’s precise quietly misleads the coverage view.

On export, keep the PDF and KMZ but add a raw CSV with a documented, stable schema. PDF is a dead end for anyone wanting to pull your captures into their own analytics; CSV is what makes the tool useful downstream.

I’ve built the same class of capture-and-analytics pipeline off a test handset and hit every one of these walls, so happy to compare notes if useful.