Contact Us
Solutions
Remote Site Monitoring - Articles and Papers
Leading WiMAX service provider gets proactive in monitoring its remote Base Transceiver Stations (BTS)
In the high-stakes battle of Internet providers, WiMAX represents the latest technology to challenge DSL and cable technologies. This new wireless technology is gaining attention for its ability to provide high-speed, high-throughput broadband connections over distances of up to 30 miles instead of a few hundred feet.
A leading provider of WiMAX high-speed Internet service to
residential and small business customers in North America, with
service in 46 markets covering more than 400 cities and towns,
quickly discovered the benefi ts of proactively monitoring, accessing
and controlling remote equipment, DC power and environmental
conditions.
The problem
As with any network service, unplanned remote site downtime due to equipment and power failure, and adverse environmental conditions can severely impair network service. When designing their remote site infrastructure, one of the biggest challenges this WiMAX service provider had was the maintenance of continuous and economical service regardless of the myriad of potential problems in such a complex network.
With an array of remote communication towers linked to their main communication hubs in each service area, every market has dozens of remote sites that are vulnerable to lightning strikes, heat, wind, and various other conditions or equipment failures that can cause outages or reductions in service quality.
For this WiMAX service provider with thousands of remote sites, any outage would mean that a legion of technicians in service trucks must roll to the remote locations. They viewed this as an enormously expensive and time-consuming “reactive” strategy that could impact the price, reliability, and consumer perception of their new WiMAX service. As WiMAX is considered a new technology by consumers relative to DSL or cable, it is imperative that quality of service be as high as possible.
To avoid physical site visits, the WiMAX operator wanted their deployed Base Transceiver Stations to have the ability to remotely cycle DC power of individual devices when equipment would freeze. Since equipment within the Base Transceiver Stations is responsible for providing communication back to the Network Operation Center (NOC), it was also important for them to have an Out-of-Band method of connecting the NOC to the remote BTS locations in case the primary communication equipment caused this link to fail. This is imperative to allow the NOC to fulfi ll its role in managing the health of the network. Also required was the full-time monitoring of cabinet entry and environmental events, as well as protecting and managing the devices within the cabinet. Most importantly, they wanted the ability to remotely handle all of these functions through SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) over a private IP network to enable the direct control necessary to ensure reliability.
Realizing that providing all of this functionality typically grows rapidly into an expensive proposition, thereby threatening the competitive pricing they needed to offer, they searched for a vendor that could provide the necessary monitoring, access and control functionality within a cost-effective package.
The Solution
They chose Asentria, and initially used Asentria’s SL81 units, plus a subsidiary Asentria DC switching device called the PB-1. This pair of devices enabled the provider to conduct DC switching for up to eight devices within the remote BTS locations, monitor environmental variables, and to gain remote Out-of- Band access to the BTS locations via a POTS dialup modem.
After successfully deploying Asentria’s SL81/PB-1 solution to hundreds of BTSs, Asentria set to work creating a next generation product that would encompass the functions of both the SL81, PB- 1, plus address additional needs identifi ed from the experience gained in the initial roll-out. Asentria’s development and manufacturing teams set out on a mission to create a more capable single hardware device, ideally suited for BTS and other small location monitoring. The mandate was to create a smaller, less expensive, multi-functional and more powerful device.
Based on the Linux operating system, the new SiteBoss 570 (S570) device uses only 1U of rack space, provides 10 DC relays capable of switching 10amps at –48vDC, and has an integrated internal EDGE wireless modem. It provides both In-Band and Out-of-Band access to as many as 16 serial devices. Integrating the wireless EDGE modem removed the need to have a POTS line extended to each BTS, greatly reducing the initial cost and work in deploying new BTS locations. The costs of data plans for a wireless modem are also less than a POTS line on an ongoing basis.
The experience in the WiMAX deployment process led Asentria to add an SD slot to enable field technicians to more easily service units by using the SD cards to upload or download data from the S570. The S570 is also designed to scale for larger, more centralized Point-of-Presence (POP) locations. The WiMAX service provider is also using the S570 in their POPs throughout the country.
There was a strong focus to utilize the new Linux operating system in the S570 to increase the power of the unit as a utility for NOC personnel to troubleshoot problems at a remote site. A second Ethernet port was added to improve the troubleshooting capability of the device through port mirroring and packet capture. Frequently a BTS might experience problems that are more related to a degradation of service, rather than a complete failure. The S570 is designed to assist NOC personnel in eliminating these problems. Advanced passive logging capabilities allow the S570 to track and store records of service personnel’s remote access and activity to determine if human error is responsible for problems.
Benefits
Asentria’s S570 controllers have been able to prevent damage to costly equipment, and prevent expensive “truck rolls” for service calls. Decreased downtime at the WiMAX sites has also improved the operator’s service quality to their customers. As you can imagine, this is a particular concern for operators deploying new technologies such as WiMax.
Asentria’s S570 controllers improve reliability and reduce costs. Reliability is improved in three primary ways:
1.) Using the EDGE wireless modem, even if primary communication is lost to the BTS, the NOC can still access the BTS via Asentria’s Out-of-Band methods to reboot equipment, and try and correct a problem. This access enables communication to the various equipment within the BTS cabinet to try and determine where the problem lies, without the delay and expense of service technicians to arrive at site.
2.) Asentria’s S570 DC relays allow for equipment that are “hung-up” to be re-booted almost instantaneously, often before customers would even notice a loss of service.
3.) The S570 Linux operating system and multiple Ethernet ports that allow for packet capture and port sniffing enable the NOC to troubleshoot more insidious problems such as loss of performance.
Cost Saving
• Asentria remote site monitoring devices help centralize problem solving, enabling the NOC to more fully utilize fewer, more highly trained personnel, rather than less sophisticated fi eld technicians.
• Asentria remote site monitoring devices help prevent “truck rolls”, fi rst giving the NOC a chance to solve problems remotely, and secondly, if a truck roll is still necessary, helping prepare the technician in advance for the problem at the remote BTS.
• Higher reliability improves a service providers overall reputation, and prevents loss of customers due to a perceived lack of reliability.
Summary
Today’s networks have evolved into business-critical services that individuals and organizations rely on every day. WiMAX is a new technology relative to DSL or cable, and therefore, it is imperative that quality of service be as high as possible. Unplanned downtime at remote Base Transceiver Stations due to equipment and power failure, and adverse environmental conditions can severely impair network service.
One of the biggest challenges to service providers with advanced WiMAX operations is the maintenance of continuous and economical service regardless of weather conditions and power irregularities or outages. Asentria provides a versatile monitoring and control system which is ideally suited for assisting and maintaining the uptime of WiMAX deployments.
Asentria brings the remote site environmental conditions, and the often complex array of heterogeneous equipment within reach of the network administrator, by enabling them with proactive monitoring, access and control. Our intelligent remote site monitoring solutions alert network IT personnel of problems; locate the problems, route alarm information directly to the people who need it, and, automatically correct problems. These capabilities help make the diff erence between an inconsequential event and critical downtime.
The Company
Asentria develops remote site monitoring and telemanagement solutions that enable providers of critical communications infrastructure to more efficiently and reliably run their networks. Asentria’s products help ensure quality of service and lower operational costs, while making it easier to provision, maintain and support remote equipment. Our strategic solutions fit both large and small communication networks and provide high-value, cost-effective and competitive differentiators to our customers.
Asentria helps administrators cost-effectively manage their call reporting data and remote site infrastructure, while extending confidence and security to ensure availability, integrity and performance. Asentria enables administrators to avoid failures from poor performing equipment that threaten end-user service expectations, while providing better control to predict the performance of remote infrastructure. These new levels of protection shield end-users from remote site equipment failure. Our service provider and enterprise customers trust their remote equipment sites to Asentria. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
