Why problems arise in communications in big cities and how they are solved
Everyone understands what the process of expanding the communication network is - region by region, city by city is built up with new towers that are included in the overall network. But what is being done where the network has been around for a long time, for example, in big cities?
And there, everything lives its own life, and the farther, the more and more rapidly. Generations of residents are changing there: young people are growing up, which need more mobile functions and the Internet at every turn, generations of mobile devices change from simple dialers to people transferring to smartphones with support for higher data transfer speeds, there is a growing demand for traffic - many now 2-3 devices sitting on the Internet. And they sometimes exchange information among themselves without the participation of man.
Why there are problems with the quality of communication in large cities?
1) A huge number of subscribers, they are all crowded in certain places, everything moves. But especially - the growth in needs for packet traffic. The transport network does not always keep up in its growth with customer requirements. In 2012, the growth in data transfer volumes was 8.6%, and every bit was delivered by us to the Internet and back.
2) Complicated electromagnetic environment - a lot of sources of radiation and interference in all bands, military equipment (3G frequencies of 2100 MHz we share with the military - their devices operate in the same frequency range, respectively, interfere with each other).
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3) Rapid relief changes. The quality of coverage suffers after the construction of new buildings, and feedback to MegaFon on this issue usually comes from the subscribers themselves. It’s almost impossible to find out from the subscriber technical details sufficient for a specialist. To plan measurements of problem areas, complaints statistics are needed, i.e. several pieces from one place.
4) Difficulties with the placement of new stations at suitable sites: this is often a residential building (it is impossible to install according to sanitary requirements), or the owner does not allow or requests inadequate accommodation fees. The entire territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, for example, at some moment was left without communication from MegaFon because of the lessor, who demanded an eightfold increase in rent. Now the legislators are considering the issue of equating cellular communication stations with the objects of the Civil Defense and Emergency Situations Department, which will allow us, as an operator, to enter any site we need.
That is, just building a network is not enough - it needs to be constantly developed, to increase the capacity of existing BS and to complete construction of new ones. Let's see how and how the network is completed.
How to choose a place for construction
Information about where the network needs to be improved is obtained from two sources:
1. Analysis of the radio network, based on statistics, identifies problem areas in the coverage, which include areas with a weak signal level or lack of capacity of operating BS (in the picture is an internal map where you can see how each BS shines, if something is not in order, then the description of the problem, and to the right is 2G and 3G coverage, this information can be found on the website in the “Coverage Area” section ).
2. Zones with a weak signal level are also detected by subscriber complaints. For this there is a feedback form Line of National Control .
The radio network planning team travels to the problem area, conducts radio measurements and makes a list of possible locations for an additional base station (BS) (roofs of buildings, advertising structures, towers, etc.), taking into account sanitary standards for radiation power at a specific location. At the same time, the planning of the transport network is under way, and the possibility of bringing transmission tanks to this place is being considered.
Further information is transmitted for the conclusion of a contract with the owner of the building on which the BS will be installed. Within the framework of this agreement, the method of power supply, heat removal, location of the equipment room and antennas is agreed.
Based on technical assignments by our contractors, the construction of the base station begins directly. Here there is an article , it describes how it happens on the example of one of our base stations.
What types of base stations are available and what equipment is used
Placement of equipment in the hardware is regulated by standard layout schemes, which contain a reasonable compromise between the size of the hardware, fire safety requirements, the operation of climate control systems. A typical hardware room consists of 2G, 3G, LTE cabinets, a transmission rack (to which the communication channel arrives), a power supply rack (which provides the specified quality with mandatory redundancy in case of disconnecting external supply), fire alarm and climate control systems.
MegaFon provides cellular services based on the following technologies:
• GSM 1800/900 (2G);
• UMTS 2100/900 (3G);
• LTE 2600 TDD (4G).
In its network, MegaFon uses modern solutions from several leading suppliers of telecommunications equipment. Nokia Siemens Network, Huawei, Ericsson for base stations and Cisco, Juniper, Huawei for transport.
The equipment for 2G networks is quite old, it is not installed on new BSs, it is gradually being replaced with more modern ones.
Currently, MegaFon refuses bulky cabinets with equipment, now the system module that controls all radio equipment and is similar in size to the system unit of a stationary computer is placed in a BS container, and all radio equipment is installed near antennas. This reduces the signal loss, a large compactness and the possibility of using the equipment in any conditions is achieved.
How the new BS is built into the network
MegaFon base stations are usually connected to the general transport network using one of the typical methods:
1) BS connection by fiber optic link. In the country, we have deployed a giant fiber optic network - 140 thousand km, it provides a link to a high-capacity transmission base station. But often due to various factors summing up the fiber-optic line to the BS is impossible.
2) Connecting the BS on the radio relay line (RRL). This is one of the types of radio communications formed by a chain of receiving and transmitting (relay) radio stations. At the same time, this is one of the most financially inexpensive ways to connect, and given the fact that modern RRLs provide data transmission at speeds> 800 Mbit, then, as an alternative to fiber optic links, RRL is the most acceptable option.
3) In the case when it is not possible to conduct a fiber optic link or build a radio relay link, but near the BS there are capacities of some Internet service provider, in this case, the flows are leased from this provider. However, we consider this as the most extreme option, to have one’s always better.
Now, the new BS becomes a full member of the network, assuming the service of our subscribers, giving them the opportunity to fully use the services of the operator and the charms of modern technology. But we hope that our subscribers will not know about all the above processes :)
And there, everything lives its own life, and the farther, the more and more rapidly. Generations of residents are changing there: young people are growing up, which need more mobile functions and the Internet at every turn, generations of mobile devices change from simple dialers to people transferring to smartphones with support for higher data transfer speeds, there is a growing demand for traffic - many now 2-3 devices sitting on the Internet. And they sometimes exchange information among themselves without the participation of man.
Why there are problems with the quality of communication in large cities?
1) A huge number of subscribers, they are all crowded in certain places, everything moves. But especially - the growth in needs for packet traffic. The transport network does not always keep up in its growth with customer requirements. In 2012, the growth in data transfer volumes was 8.6%, and every bit was delivered by us to the Internet and back.
2) Complicated electromagnetic environment - a lot of sources of radiation and interference in all bands, military equipment (3G frequencies of 2100 MHz we share with the military - their devices operate in the same frequency range, respectively, interfere with each other).
')
3) Rapid relief changes. The quality of coverage suffers after the construction of new buildings, and feedback to MegaFon on this issue usually comes from the subscribers themselves. It’s almost impossible to find out from the subscriber technical details sufficient for a specialist. To plan measurements of problem areas, complaints statistics are needed, i.e. several pieces from one place.
4) Difficulties with the placement of new stations at suitable sites: this is often a residential building (it is impossible to install according to sanitary requirements), or the owner does not allow or requests inadequate accommodation fees. The entire territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, for example, at some moment was left without communication from MegaFon because of the lessor, who demanded an eightfold increase in rent. Now the legislators are considering the issue of equating cellular communication stations with the objects of the Civil Defense and Emergency Situations Department, which will allow us, as an operator, to enter any site we need.
That is, just building a network is not enough - it needs to be constantly developed, to increase the capacity of existing BS and to complete construction of new ones. Let's see how and how the network is completed.
How to choose a place for construction
Information about where the network needs to be improved is obtained from two sources:
1. Analysis of the radio network, based on statistics, identifies problem areas in the coverage, which include areas with a weak signal level or lack of capacity of operating BS (in the picture is an internal map where you can see how each BS shines, if something is not in order, then the description of the problem, and to the right is 2G and 3G coverage, this information can be found on the website in the “Coverage Area” section ).
2. Zones with a weak signal level are also detected by subscriber complaints. For this there is a feedback form Line of National Control .
The radio network planning team travels to the problem area, conducts radio measurements and makes a list of possible locations for an additional base station (BS) (roofs of buildings, advertising structures, towers, etc.), taking into account sanitary standards for radiation power at a specific location. At the same time, the planning of the transport network is under way, and the possibility of bringing transmission tanks to this place is being considered.
Further information is transmitted for the conclusion of a contract with the owner of the building on which the BS will be installed. Within the framework of this agreement, the method of power supply, heat removal, location of the equipment room and antennas is agreed.
Based on technical assignments by our contractors, the construction of the base station begins directly. Here there is an article , it describes how it happens on the example of one of our base stations.
What types of base stations are available and what equipment is used
Placement of equipment in the hardware is regulated by standard layout schemes, which contain a reasonable compromise between the size of the hardware, fire safety requirements, the operation of climate control systems. A typical hardware room consists of 2G, 3G, LTE cabinets, a transmission rack (to which the communication channel arrives), a power supply rack (which provides the specified quality with mandatory redundancy in case of disconnecting external supply), fire alarm and climate control systems.
MegaFon provides cellular services based on the following technologies:
• GSM 1800/900 (2G);
• UMTS 2100/900 (3G);
• LTE 2600 TDD (4G).
In its network, MegaFon uses modern solutions from several leading suppliers of telecommunications equipment. Nokia Siemens Network, Huawei, Ericsson for base stations and Cisco, Juniper, Huawei for transport.
The equipment for 2G networks is quite old, it is not installed on new BSs, it is gradually being replaced with more modern ones.
Currently, MegaFon refuses bulky cabinets with equipment, now the system module that controls all radio equipment and is similar in size to the system unit of a stationary computer is placed in a BS container, and all radio equipment is installed near antennas. This reduces the signal loss, a large compactness and the possibility of using the equipment in any conditions is achieved.
How the new BS is built into the network
MegaFon base stations are usually connected to the general transport network using one of the typical methods:
1) BS connection by fiber optic link. In the country, we have deployed a giant fiber optic network - 140 thousand km, it provides a link to a high-capacity transmission base station. But often due to various factors summing up the fiber-optic line to the BS is impossible.
2) Connecting the BS on the radio relay line (RRL). This is one of the types of radio communications formed by a chain of receiving and transmitting (relay) radio stations. At the same time, this is one of the most financially inexpensive ways to connect, and given the fact that modern RRLs provide data transmission at speeds> 800 Mbit, then, as an alternative to fiber optic links, RRL is the most acceptable option.
3) In the case when it is not possible to conduct a fiber optic link or build a radio relay link, but near the BS there are capacities of some Internet service provider, in this case, the flows are leased from this provider. However, we consider this as the most extreme option, to have one’s always better.
Now, the new BS becomes a full member of the network, assuming the service of our subscribers, giving them the opportunity to fully use the services of the operator and the charms of modern technology. But we hope that our subscribers will not know about all the above processes :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/174295/
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