Efficient deployment of mobile test units to gather location-dependent radio-frequency data

A technique for designing and testing a drive-test plan for gathering location-dependent RF data is disclosed. In the invention mobile test units are deployed to gather empirical radio-frequency data without some of the costs and disadvantages of the prior art. The mobile test unit determines whether to make a measurement of an electromagnetic signal at a location P, based, at least in part, on an estimate of the likelihood that the signal can be isolated from noise at the location P.