Bovanenkovo ​​- the organization of communication in the gas field No. 3 in Russia from the BS on permafrost

Antenna radio relay communication line



We organized communications at the Bovanenkovskoye oil and gas condensate field (OGKM) in the Yamal district of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. Down there, under the stations, about 5 trillion cubic meters of gas. And, as is usual in Russia, the place is so deaf that there is really nothing near. At all.





The beginning of the construction of the earth satellite communications terminal (ZSSS), piles deeply driven into permafrost.

')

Only in 2011, the departmental railway station Obskaya to the facility was commissioned. Helicopters from Nadym and Salekhard fly there on a regular basis, which deliver shifts. There is a river port on the field, water navigation is open in the summer. With all this, the morning can begin with the fact that it is -50 outside, but you still need to mount it.

A place

The relief on Yamal is flat, and there were no such difficulties as with diamond deposits among colleagues. If, in the case of diamonds, the relief is a huge funnel into which you need to “blow out” the signal from a high communication tower, then everything is easier - just an ordinary lowland. But the problem is in a large area - we needed to cover three geographically separated objects. Plus, communication with the MSC (switchboard) is possible only with via satellite, otherwise there is no way.





Place in summer





Location



Such projects are quite expensive and pay off more slowly than in the BS in the cities, so planning and design takes a long time, carefully, and do not always get a green light for construction. Here we had the opportunity for the first stage to use 2G-equipment, which as a result of network upgrades (SWAP) was moved from another branch. Reuse of equipment significantly reduced the cost of the project. On the technical side, it is fully functional and will serve for a long time in a harsh climate. I think we will continue this practice further.





View in winter, view in the direction of radiation of one of the sectors



So, we decided to build 3 base stations, two of which are connected to the third one via the RRL, and about the third one, ZSSS is directly installed, from where the channel from our base stations to the satellite comes (jump to orbit). The landing of the channel takes place at a satellite hub in Moscow, from where it is sent along the main optics to the Noyabrsk switch.





Construction of ZSSS



Bovanenkovo ​​is a hefty industrial complex with a large residential part as a core and numerous technological platforms scattered for 10-15 km in the surrounding tundra. In the shift is usually a little less than 10 thousand people, all involved in the industrial development of the field. Base stations are located at three key sites of the field - at the airport, on the territory of the base. At the airport, the antenna system is placed on a monopoly structure on the container (above in the photo). At other base stations, GP-1 and GP-2 were used - the existing antenna-mast structures of Gazprom Dobycha Nadym LLC. If they also built their buildings as a designer, “assemble the tower itself”, it would be unrealistically difficult.





From the upper site to the lower - about 15 kilometers

Satellite channel g.703, (VSAT service, delivery of transport from CDM625 satellite modems).





View of the berets from one of the positions





RRL from this position

People

About 10 thousand shift workers in the village of Bovanenkovskom and directly at the field will be able to use Beeline cellular communication. Mostly gas producers, gas carriers, railway workers (the world's northernmost railway now passes through Bovanenkovo), as well as employees of contracting organizations.





Communication tower



At the moment, 2G is working at the stations, the 3G network is preparing to launch. The current load is about 30 Erlang. In 2G, the current speed is of the order of 50-70 kbps with normal (that is, under these conditions - almost full) cell load. After the launch of the 3G standard BS, the maximum capacity that will be available to the subscriber will be 8 Mb / s (this is the maximum limited by the channel bandwidth). In fact, most likely, if no one downloads torrents, the average speed will be up to 2 Mbit / s (according to the experience of similar projects).



Most subscribers use their phones to make calls and access social networks to communicate with their relatives. Given the abundance of entertainment in the territory, the traffic on the social network is almost constant.



The peculiarity of communication, as well as everywhere with a satellite, is ping for more than a second. Pages load quickly, but not immediately, if they require a lot of small requests, but photos and music open at a quite normal speed.



Technical support and maintenance on such distant objects - the eternal complexity. In the event of a complex breakdown, it is necessary to deliver the spare part together with the helicopter engineer. In case of smaller problems, remote access and “enikeyshik” are enough on the spot. Therefore, we solve problems with the help of communication engineers on site, when we need to do something with our hands.

Equipment

First of all, everything stands on permafrost. When carrying out work on the installation of structures in the ground and on the ground, the approach is peculiar . This is not the first experience of construction in such conditions , we usually use SOU or mounted on special pillars. The experience gained in Bovanenkovo, perhaps the most valuable and most difficult inherited.





Hardware, on the floor - dielectric mats, laid near each installation.





Base station UPS





Cable bridge inside the hardware room



The climate here is difficult. The polar region in general is not always happy with daylight - light day is 3-4 hours a day in winter. In the fall and spring, another misfortune is foggy weather, and the fog is so dense that the flights of airplanes and helicopters are forbidden. In the summer it blurs the roads, but there is an opportunity to travel on water. In general, the full set.



Interesting, but even in such cold conditions, the issue of cooling is relevant. At the BS there are air conditioners of the type of complex split systems with winter suites. The room under the BS is a container that is placed at the base of the high-rise support, the feeder comes out of it, climbs the antenna mast structures and connects to the antenna. In our project in two positions, we use ready-made premises.



In such projects we use equipment capable of operating in the harsh climatic conditions of Russia.





Container-hardware. This is one of the options for installing a mobile BS, i.e. if desired, you can always move the container to any other place without any difficulties. We could not deliver slabs, build a foundation, etc. To create a kind of foundation, we loaded the metal into the container, brought it to the point of installation, assembled it on the spot in the form of such sleighs on which the container was installed. Naturally, the design is fixed and will not go anywhere.





He just slightly from the side, BS "Mechanic"



There were difficulties in the construction of the ZSSS, and equipment failure after installation (there was a long replacement throughout the chain), but we met our plan for the deadlines.



In general: there is nothing supernatural in the construction and launch of these objects. Logistical difficulties, permafrost, frost, etc. - This is a normal phenomenon for our edges. In general, the northern territories are not a simple pleasure, and it’s good that the necessary towers here were already existing ones. If we built ourselves (as we often do on other, more complex engineering objects), then difficulties can be at all stages, starting with the search for soils and ending with construction works.





The junction point of the grounding cable. So that this compound is not under tension due to temperature fluctuations to minimize the risk of its rupture, such a loop is made.





Cable route to BS "Hardware"





Connecting pads at the connection point



The plans for further development of the North include the construction of base stations in the Sabetta and Tambey areas on eastern Yamal, where a promising development of a gas field is also under way. Most likely, these are Messoyakha, Sabetta, Payuta, Nurma-Yaha and other enterprises of the region. Our installations are relatively frequent, but each launch is a new experience and a small victory.