US Patent 9432965 Determining wireless coverage information using wireless access points

Aspects of the disclosure relate to various approaches to gathering information about access nodes serving in an area and using the information to generate a coverage map. The coverage map may be generated by detecting broadcasted signal strengths from a plurality of access nodes as detected by other access nodes. The broadcasted signal strengths can be used in combination with the location of the access nodes receiving the broadcasted signal to estimate a location of each of the plurality of access nodes. A coverage map may be generated based on the estimated locations of each of the plurality of access nodes using an effective coverage range for each access node based on the access node type. The coverage of each access node may be refined by analyzing signal data received by neighboring nodes. The coverage map may be used to identify unauthorized devices.