faculty ALTTC, Ghaziabad

Preventive maintenance
• The care and servicing by personnel for the purpose of
maintaining equipment and facilities in satisfactory operating
condition .
• It is periodical systematic inspection, detection, and correction
of incipient failures either before they occur or before they
develop into major defects.
• Maintenance, including tests, measurements, adjustments, and
parts replacement, performed specifically to prevent faults
from occurring.
• The primary goal of maintenance is to avoid or mitigate the
consequences of failure of equipment
 BTS Maintenance

• To reduce the down time of mobile network.

• To improve the quality of network(call congestion , call drop,
grade of service etc.
• To increase the coverage area by avoiding RF power losses,
like insertion loss ,Return loss and VSWR .
• Optimization is must whenever a new site is installed in the
area.
 TE/BTS Maintenance
• BTS Maintenance is not possible without fully
involvement of Internal and outdoor staff of CFA.
• In all exchanges , BTS are installed and in
almost all ,shelter sites, leased circuit /DSLAM
are/shall be installed.
• All BTS sites are hired , electricity connection/
bill payment / agreement with owner are signed
by out door CFA team.
• Any ID/OD site without sharing , leased circuit
/DSLAM is not feasible now.
 BTS Maintenance
• 1-Room Rent
• 2-Electricity bill
• 3-Security bill
• 4-E/A diesel bill
• AMC bill of AC/E/A
• Spectrum charge
• Municipal /town area bill
• House keeping bill
• Vehicle bill
• Rigger
• Periodical infra maintenance
 BTS Maintenance

• Rain water entry in shelter/OD Cabinet resulting in

Electrical & Electronic equipment damage.
• RF Feeder cable from Antenna through cable tray
comes in the shelter room and before entering in the
shelter(before hatch plate) it must have a parabolic
curve. Due to this U shape like curve, the rain water
drops falling through feeder cable , fell to ground and
not entered inside the shelter.(Most important).
 BTS Maintenance
• Use shoe covers or remove shoes before entering
inside the shelter door of Indoor BTS.
• Check the status of supply at ACDB and MCBs ,
which board is mounted near the door.
• Check the room temperature and cooling inside the
shelter room.
• If it is low even after temperature setting, check the
low gas on compressor by sensing the heat on AC
supply cable /using clamp meter.
 BTS Maintenance

• After AC status, check the leakage of cool air if any,

and close the leakage , specially from cable entry
points/Hatch plate. Use sealing liquid material with
hand held machine,
• Now check the status of SMPS Power plant-voltage
,current load on LCD display board at front panel of
power plant and LED lamps.
• Check the load sharing ribbon cable and connectors
on each modules . Adjust the voltage by using up
/down push switch on the module.
 BTS Maintenance

• Check the float charging ,Battery 1& Battery 2

charging and battery discharging by switching off AC
supply to Power plant.
• Battery charge and discharge at load is periodically
must . High room temperature in BTS shelter is
dangerous to battery banks life also .The experimental
results show that a typical battery has the best life time
when maintained at 27˚C temperature.
• Please don’t forget to check LPU (lightning protection
unit) and it should not be by passed.
 BTS Maintenance

• Check the photo electric smoke detector and alarm

controller by periodical testing of all alarms and
confirm the alarm status at OMCR.
• Fire Extinguisher – Check,filled,partially,empty
condition of liquid/ CO2 / dry powder fire
extinguisher.
 BTS Maintenance
• Weather proofing
• Weather proofing should be properly done, if it is not proper
then this may be one of the reason of VSWR alarm after first
shower of rain.
• A small quantity of rain water inside feeder cable increases
VSWR , resulting in low radiated RF power & most of the
power is returned back to transmitter. High VSWR above 1.2
,also damages trans/reciever cards.
• This can be evaporated by hot air blower from one end of
feeder and other end is kept open .
• Weather proofing material being used shall be checked with
expiry date .
 BTS Maintenance

Flexible Jumper cables

½ inch flexible n type Male Jumper cables are required
for installation of BTS at desired position and
connecting BTS on top/side/bending connectors ,
maintenance work, like VSWR testing . Jumper
cables are used to connect BTS top connectors to
surge arrestors. If BTS is only 10 to 15 meters away
from Antenna , only Jumper cable can be used.
Keep 01/02 spare jumper cables, for replacement.
 BTS Maintenance

• Feeder cable grounding/earthing

• Feeder cable must be grounded on three points. Two
on the tower and one with the EGB just before
entering in shelter.
• Grounding is done by the grounding kit available
with weather proofing kit and it should be properly
shielded with weather proofing material and good
quality tapes.
 BTS Maintenance
• Check GSM Antenna installed on the tower
according to the RF plan,including orientation
(Azimuth) of the antenna and tilt , as per radio
network planning.
• GSM antenna clamp should be tightened on pole and
poles on the tower properly .It should be not loose.
Missing bolts on clamps must be checked and
immediately tightened.
• Fasten the bolts of RTT&GBT.This is very important
at all and specially in coastal areas where wind speed
is 200 to 400 KMPH
 BTS Maintenance
2T Airconditioner-bio filter cleaning,DC Exaust fan
/free cooling filter cleaning and sealing of air
conditioner leakage.
• Dust Cleaning of heat sinks of Tx/Rx/ANC Combiner
modules, and 200/100/25 amp power module by
using air blower.
• Cleaning and tightening of connecting copper
plates(no heat up) of battery cells.
• Periodic checking of battery cells and charge
discharge of battery.
 BTS Maintenance
• To ensure tightening of nut & bolts of all points of
hard/flexible cu/ al cables and earth strips.
• Periodic measurement(every 6 months) of earth resistance
(less than 0.5 ohm) and filling of water/coal/salt in dry
earth pit.
• Check and ensure that there is no break or loose
connection of lightning arrestor conducting path from air(
Franklin rod ) terminal to ground.
• Periodic checking and tightening of plates of Monopole/
triangular/narrow band rectangular towers.
 BTS Maintenance
 Installation of CDMA filters between Antenna port
and Duplexer port in 7/8 inch feeder cable path to
reduce the CDMA interference.
 Periodical drive test to monitor adjacent and co-
channel interference . This is part of
optimization/drive test.
 Re checking of azimuth of antenna after heavy
rain/storm/thunderstorm , specially in coastal areas.
 Periodic checking of aviation lamps (step of 40 plus
20mtrs ht,)specially in the funnel area of air port.
 Installation of additional Tx/Rx as well as BTS,COW
in Mela etc.
 Free Cooling Unit
Accessories
1) DC Cooling Air blower/ Axial Fan
2) Air Filter
3) Temperature Sensor Out door
4) Temperature Sensor Indoor
5) Control Unit
6) MCB
7) Inlet and outlet door window
8) Out door Exhaust window with net
 BTS Shelter Cooling Without AC

• The equipment inside the BTS shelter produces heat

that requires an AC to siphon out the heat but in the
process, it uses a large amount of electricity.
• As we all are aware that there is a great need to
preserve the environment , any saving in electricity
helps in this direction and it is a small contribution to
climate. There is a direct saving in electricity
expenses too.
 BTS Shelter Cooling Without AC

• If we look at our country India, there are many states

where the temperature for a few months in a year is
below the temperature that is desired inside the
shelter, especially at night. So, it is feasible to lower
the temperature inside the shelter if we can
selectively use the outside air to cool the hot air
inside the shelter.
 BTS Shelter Cooling Without AC

• Free cooling unit FCU is -48 V DC operated outdoor

control unit supplied by many Vendors in India.
• It is very useful for power saving of BTS shelter sites
.It can be used for room/shelter BTS sites.
• It reduces the running time period of Window/split
ACs resulting in power bill.
 Free Cooling unit
• Whenever the air outside is cooler than a 'user
defined temperature difference', our system switches
ON the fan that pushes air from outside to inside the
shelter. The hot air form inside the shelter is pushed
out simultaneously. The air that is pushed in ,is
filtered through the HDPE filters washable with
filtration 90% down to 20 micron provided for the
purpose. The system switches OFF the fans
automatically in case it is hotter outside than inside
by 'user defined temperature difference'.
 Free Cooling Unit

• Energy efficient Free Cooling solution that can be

retrofitted in existing systems.
• The return on investment for the retrofit is achieved
especially quickly in base stations, where comfort air
conditioning units are running 24 hours a day.
• The Free-Air units are plug and play and therefore
immediately ready for connection and use.
 Free Cooling Unit

• Whenever the outside temperature allows, Free

Cooling mode is activated and the comfort air
conditioning units are switched off.
• The main objective of free cooling is to reduce
Aircon run time and save electricity cost at the
Telecom sites. The free cooling system uses the
ambient temperature to cool the Telecom shelter by
sensing the shelter temperature and the ambient
temperature differential.
 Free Cooling Unit

• The free cooling system also operates in case of

emergency due to Airconditoners failure or Mains fail
by any other reason leading to persistent high
temperature of more than 40 degree C inside the BTS
room/shelter sites.
 Free Cooling Unit

• Main Advantage is , a low cost solution whereas

disadvantage is Ingress contamination.
• It is not recommended for dusty/polluted area like
industrial area of dying and chemical industry.
• It is used at above ambient temperature .
 Out door unit -FCU

• The similar free cooling unit is also used with

Outdoor BTS unit.
• In out door units, 02 or 03 exhaust filters are used for
pushing hot air from the equipment. The room
temperature/out side air is sucked from bottom end
with air filter of cabinet due to low air pressure in
side. This filter shall be also cleaned periodically.
 Free Cooling Unit
•
• For best utilization of FCU, Temperature setting shall
be adjusted based on climatic condition of the area.
• Filters shall be cleaned after every 15 days .
• Filters shall be cleaned by air blower/water
 Aviation Lamp & Lightening arrester

• Aviation light heights 20/40/80/100m

• Aviation light signals
• Aviation warning light (LED/ laser type with sensor)
• Aviation warning light power cable.
• Base mounting and protection from wind speed at
200KMPH
 Aviation Lamp &Lightning arrester
• Aviation lamp are dc operated LED lamp with auto
switch off after sun light.
• I have seen that many aviation lamps are not working
due to very simple reason;
• 1) It is normally not checked in day time duty hours.
However it can be checked by covering black
polythene bag in day time. For this work ,Rigger shall
be used.
• 2) Pl check Aviation lamp DC supply on/off switch
inside power room or shelter.
 Lightning Arrester/Surge Protecter

• Surge arrester are high voltage protector, these surge

arrester protects the BTS card and modules from
lightening.
These surge arrester fixed on the surge arrester stand
and this surge arrester stand is connected with
internal ground bus bar IGB.
Surge arrestor have female 7/8 inch connectors at
both ends
 BTS Maintenance

• LPU is a small unit having MCB and surge protector

between Power plant and ACDB.
• It also protects power module units and electronic
equipments from high voltage power supply from HT
lines .
 Aviation Lamp &Lightning arrester

• The fixing of aviation mast lights, PVC armoured

cable fixed by means of clamps to the cable runway,
wiring of light points and provision of twilight
switches for operation of the light on the tower. PVC
insulated armoured copper cable shall be used.
Armoured cable is used to protect cable from squirrel
and rat .
 Aviation Lamp &Lightning arrester

• The fitting arrangement shall be enough so as to

withstand a storm intensity of at least of 200kmph
and complete safety arrangement from rain water. A
temporary warning light (red lamp minimum
100W/230V shall be provided during construction
and erection of the tower when it reaches the height
of 40mtr and above.
 Aviation Lamp &Lightning arrester

• The fitting arrangement shall be enough so as to

withstand a storm intensity of at least of 200kmph
and complete safety arrangement from rain water. A
temporary warning light (red lamp minimum
100W/230V shall be provided during construction
and erection of the tower when it reaches the height
of 40mtr and above.
Capacitor Analogy
 Lightning Arrester

• Parts of Lightening arrester unit

• Copper spike , air terminal or lightning rod
• Grounding of copper or GI conductor
• Grounding termina l/ earthing
• Separate grounding for tower and BTS
• Surge arrester
Lightening protection zone.
 Controversy over lightning conductors
• A controversy erupted when a Marquis Alessandro
Chigi(Italy) criticized these conductors and claimed that they
were dangerous because they would attract lightning and
would not work when they did. In 1769 one hundred tons of
gunpowder that was stored in the vaults of the Church of St.
Nazaire in Breescia, Italy, was exploded when lightning struck
the spire. Several thousand people were killed and the city
was leveled. As a result, the British government implored the
Royal Society to devise some means of protecting their
powder magazines at Purfleet.” On May 9, 1778, the Senate of
Venice issued a decree ordering the erection of lightning rods
through the republic. It was the first recognition of the value of
conductors by any government ... (Anderson. 1879, p. 48)."5
 Lightning Arrester
• The process of electric discharge between clouds and the earth
or different clouds causes lightening. Most of the lightening
occurs within the clouds itself , but we are most concerned for
, lightening between clouds and ground.
• Lightening started when negatively charges(heavier particles)
from cloud with potential gradient 30kv/cm) or potential
difference is above 30KV, moving to positively charges near
the ground. Negative charges from cloud to ground are
stepped(01 step approx. 50 mtrs) leader and positive charges
moving from ground to upward is called upward leader . When
upward leader and stepped leader meet , it makes a path for
much larger and greater electric current and shoot up into the
cloud.
 Lightning Arrester

• Lightning and overvoltage transients cause damage

to cellular radio and telecommunications installations
each year. Telecom towers are often located on
mountain tops or the tops of high rise buildings-often
the best and shortest path for lightning to get to
ground.
 Lightning Arrester
• Make sure, the tower and BTS has separate earthing
and it has been done by Earthing Electrode (Pipe)
inside a Earth Pit of depth 8 ft minimum with
Charcoal and Salt. The Earthing pit should be
covered but also be in open as it should be moist
during rain. Also the distance between two earthing
should be 2 times the length of earthing rod. Never
have a common earthing for tower or BTS as tower
has more chances to get hit by lightning and if poor
earthing , it will burn the other BTS equipments.
 Lightning Arrester

• GBT Telecom tower (Conductor) behaves like an

inductor .Because lightning is a high
voltage/frequency event, hence “impedance” is the
critical design element. During lightning , whole
frequency band is produced
• A ground ring should surround sensitive BTS
equipment and telecom facilities. This will reduce
the risk of potential gradients across the facility.
The lightning terminal or Franklin terminal, should be
directly bonded to the facility ground ring.
 Lightning Arrester

• Dedicated Down Conductor is most important

component of lightening arrester. It channels
the electric charge captured by the air terminal
to earth. When lightning strikes, it hits the rod
and current flows down through the copper
strip. These rods form a low-resistance path for
the lightning discharge and prevent it from
travelling through the structure itself.
 Lightning protection Zone

• Lightning Masts provide a cone of protection within

which lightning charges are diverted to the mast and
grounded instead of to the protected object. A
lightning rod provides an angle of 45 degree cone of
protection, which has a ground radius approximately,
equal to its height above the ground. Tan 45=1
 Lightning Arrester

• Of course, we want you to be safe during storms as

well. When a thunderstorm is near, remember to
avoid:
• Water
• High ground
• Open Spaces (e.g. golf courses, sports fields, parks,
school yards, playgrounds)
• Solitary trees
 Lightning Arrester

• During a thunderstorm, it is a good idea to avoid

touching or being near the following items:
• Hard-wired telephones
• Plumbing
• Electrical appliances or wiring
• Metal objects including electric wires, fences,
machinery, motors, aluminum ladders, and power tools
• Metal windows or door frames
 Lightning Arrester

• Don’t carry umbrella with pointed cap

• Take shelter under short tree only,not under big tall
trees,because lightening strikes on taller trees.
• Don’t step down from the car during lightening.Your
car will act as Farady cage during lightening.
 VSWR Meter

• Accessories of VSWR M
• 1- Site Master(VSWR,Power,Location etc) 2-
Precision Short,Open & Load
• 3-Precision termination load
• - Extension test connecting cable
• 4-Battery charger
 VSWR Meter

• Measurements
• 1)Measurement of distance to fault
• 2) Measurement cable/waveguide loss
• 3) Measurement of Return loss
 Calibration of Site Master

• Calibration of site master is must for every selection

of frequency range. By calibrating the RF meter, the
effect of flexible cable and connector is reduced to
zero.
• After calibration, the data of calibration is stored in
equipment and measured unit is accurate.
 VSWR
• Standing wave ratio is a measure of ,how efficient
your antenna are radiating.
• When we terminate the transmission line in its
Characteristic impedance ,maximum power is
transmitted/Radiated.
• If load is not matching to Characteristic impedance,
the some part of Incident power is reflected back and
remaining power is transmitted.
•
 VSWR

• When some power is reflected back ,it ends up both

constructively and destructively in the transmission
line creating standing wave.
• If load is perfectly matched , there will be no
reflected wave and VSWR will be 1: 1.0.
• When load is open or short , the reflected wave will
be equal in magnitude to incident wave and VSWR
will be infinite.
 VSWR
• If Power incident is 1mw and power transmitted is
0.8 mW, then 0.2 milliwatt power is lost in the form
of attenuation/insertion or return loss .The power is
reflected due to mismatch load.
• Insertion Loss IL =10 Log10 Pt/Pi
• 10 Log .8/1= 10(log.8-log 1))= 10(log8-log10)=
• 10 (0.9-1)= 10(-0.1)=-10*0.1 =-1dB
• Similarly if transmitted power is 0.5 w Incident
power is 1 w, then insertion loss will be -3dB, means
that only half of incident power is transmitted.
 VSWR,Return loss,reflection
coefficient
Return loss RL is measured as
10 log10 (Power Pr/Pi)
Return loss with a negative sign is also
called reflection coefficient.
In a perfect match , there will be no reflected
power and return loss will be infinite.
Conversely, an open circuit will reflect total
power ,resulting in reflected power to incident
as 1 and RL will be zero.
(Log 1 is zero)
10
 VSWR

In BTS RF components , characteristic Impedance is

kept 50 ohm.
A perfect impedance match will result maximum
voltage to minimum is 1,i.e Zs/Zo =1
If Incident Voltage is 10 V and reflected voltage is 5
V,then VSWR will be 10+5/10-5= 15/5=1:3.0
If Vi is 10 v and Vr is 2 v,then VSWR will be
12/8=1:1.5
Similarly for Vi=10 and Vr =1,then VSWR=11/9=1:1.2
 VSWR

VSWR and Return loss

RL=10 Log10 (Pr/Pi).If Pi is 10 w& Pr is 1w then RL
will be 10 log (1/10)=10 Log (1-10)=10(0-1)=-10
10 10

VSWR=1+under root(Pr/Pi divided by 1-underroot Pr/Pi

1+0.316/1-0.316=1.316/0.683=1.9

If RL is 20 dB,means Pr/Pi is 1/100=0.01,then VSWR will

be 1+under root 0.01/1-underroot0.101=1.1/0.9=1.2)
1:1.2
 VSWR

• Now you calculate VSWR with RL equal to

-14 dB
• Here reflection coefficient will be 0.04 and
VSWR will be 1.2/0.8=1.5:1(√.04=0.2)
 VSWR
• 2. When load impedance equals to Zo of
the line, it means that the load _____ all
the power.
• a. reflects
• b. absorbs
• c. attenuates
• d. radiates
•
 VSWR
•
The impedance measured at the input of the
transmission line when its length is infinite.

a. Input impedance
b. Open circuit impedance
c. Characteristic impedance
d. Short circuit impedance
 Return Loss

• What is the loss of the circuit in dB if the power ratio

of output to input is 0.01?
• a. 20
• b. -20
• c. 40
• d. -40
•
 VSWR

• . When VSWR is equal to zero, this means

• a. that no power is applied
• b. that the load is purely resistive
• c. that the load is a pure reactance
• d. that the load is opened

• Ans-a (no power is applied)

 VSWR

• The standing wave ratio is equal to _______ if the

load is properly matched with the transmission line.
• a. Infinity
• b. 0
• c. -1
• d. 1

• Ans-d (1)
 Attenuation

• What causes the attenuation present in a waveguide?

• a. The air dielectric filling the guide
• b. The coating of silver inside
• c. Losses in the conducting walls of the guide
• d. Radiation loss

• Ans-C