Cellular towers fit so firmly into urban and country landscapes that we almost stopped noticing them. But their work reveals no impossibility. Without towers, or rather, a hypothetical approach, justification for them, there will be neither communication nor mobile Internet.

Who maintains the network, how quickly emergency situations are eliminated and what they comply with – I talked to you about this by Alexey Belonozhko and Nikolai Sidorov, MTS radio maintenance engineers at the Moscow enterprise.

Why do we need network engineers at all?

Typically, such articles begin with an explanation of the tasks and are always professional in a particular profession. I suggest doing the opposite.

What happens if stop serving base stations?

According to many interlocutors, the ultimate picture is predictable…

First 5-10 days. In some cases, communications will deteriorate and the number of complaints will rise rapidly.

After 2-3 weeks. Shutdown of equipment at several towers in the area will provoke overloads to increase. Internet speed will drop dramatically, large “dead zones” will appear. Even get through will be suspended.

A month later. In some regions, there will be no cellular service, except for the most stable segments, which are at risk of congestion and potentially dangerous “areas” in any case. Part of the BS continues to work for a month, and even a year, but due to confidence due to the high probability in the network, they may become useless.

What can interfere with the operation of the BS and how long does it take to remove the obstacle? Here are just some of the reasons:

▪ Interruptions or disabling blocking – from several minutes to several hours, depending on the cause.

▪ Something happened to this, because even a simple electric kettle breaks sooner or later. It takes several hours to replace.

▪ Damaged the backbone network associated with the mass distribution of stations, for example, during the construction of new houses or roads – it may take a day or more to eliminate an emergency.

Various factors influence the characterization of properties, including those that are not obvious at first glance, for example, the growth of trees, which at some point begin to signal.

Direct visibility between radio relay stations The prospect of modernization arises and arises: to change the physical antenna or “rebind” it to another BS. Sometimes it is impossible to do this, then we completely change the transport part, up to the transition to channels leased from Internet providers.

In remote regions, even the loss of one station can consume the quality of communication.

In the city, this can be imperceptible, because in dense buildings almost every sector is blocked, i.e. served by nearby stations. The phone simply connects to the tower, located a little further.

– Nikolay Sidorov, engineer of the 1st category of MTS

Apocalyptic? And then.

To prevent this from happening, complex IT systems for diagnosing the network are needed, as well as engineers who monitor the operation of equipment on towers every day, update and modernize it.

How does the working day of an MTS engineer work?

Alexei and Nikolai described a typical brigade departure. The range of expected tasks: complaints, equipment upgrades, network expansion, and so on.

In MTS for analysis of any food products There are several IT resources:

Means

• Control system (depending on vendor) installed source

• Software package for work planning, project development.

Means is an automated network operation system, in which all encounters, problems, complaints and networking are registered, present and processed. If you write to the operator that you have poor quality in your living room, this message ends up here. Connected to Remedy is an ultra-detailed map with the exact coordinates of towers and other MTS equipment throughout the country, the numbers of dispatchers, security guards and other people, detecting contact with the team of a very quick arrival to the equipment, even if it is located on private territory.

Once in the system Meansinformation about meetings is systematized and prioritized: we filter out what can be solved through remote connection and reconfiguration of the software, and decide on priority with the consideration of meetings for the team to go to the site.

Further, the manager, using a special program, determines the tasks for the departure of engineers, taking into account, among other things, their specific needs – the problem is urgent.

Each team has at least two people. This is necessary not only for safety, insurance and assistance. Many tasks require the collaboration of several engineers.

The work team gets the dimensions, analyzes it and decides what equipment, perhaps climbing equipment, and replacement hardware to take. Then everyone “loads” and leaves for the place.

brigade does not solder or commute. This is the work of service centers. The brigade makes block repairs. After all, the base station is a large object, tens of meters high. It is impossible to do something “subtle” in such conditions, and it is dangerous.

Therefore, the team installs the equipment of the tower “from the ground”, replaces the unit with a new one, and takes the faulty one to the service center, where other employees sort out the root cause of the breakdown.

What equipment is used by MTS engineers at work

In addition to tools and insurance equipment, the engineers have a laptop and a smartphone. Notebook – control and monitoring tool “in general, everything that happens at the station”. Programs work specialized, from the manufacturer of the equipment.

Devices are also used to solve narrower problems. For example, an analyzer of antenna-feeder devices (AFD), devices for determining the azimuth.


This is how the analyzer of antenna-feeder devices (AFD) looks like. An example of equipment from the Russian company NPO Radar.

We asked the guys about massively available software, for example, to independently assess the quality of communication. I found out that such programs are not suitable for professional use, because there is no accuracy, and there is little information from them.

In a smartphone for work, they are used only compassdata from the accelerometer / gyroscope of a smartphone, as well as applications with maps.

Maps are needed, for example, to see what change other nearby stations are in and build a structure before them. This helps to understand what is happening: whether there are new factors that arise in communication and cause a problem, for example, some construction has begun.

– Alexey Belonozhko, MTS Lead Engineer

An example of the work of MTS engineers. FIFA World Cup 2018


Fan zone on Sparrow Hills in Moscow, World Cup 2018 in Russia.

There are also trips in connection with the urgent launch and adjustment of equipment. In 2018, the mobile communications company Football World Cup, Alexei and Nikolai also participated in this.

There was a fan zone in the Vorobyovy Gory area, and already in the first hours of its operation it became clear that people were gathering much more than was predicted.

It was urgent to add capacity. We literally brought several basic mobile monitors to the place at night and put them on the air.

The next day, there were even more people than on the first day, and the Championship was only gaining momentum! At night before the detainees yet. In the end, we managed, the Internet just “flyed” there.

– Alexey Belonozhko, MTS Lead Engineer

How to become an engineer at MTS

In short, you need a specialized education, good health, don’t be afraid of heights and I am good at electronics.

I wrote a resume after I had answered questions about MTS. I came for an interview, then another one – and since then I have been working in the company for 12 years.

Our team is engaged in a radio access network. There are various specialists on the trip to support the operation of all parts: from supplies to external optical lines on the backbone.

There are many graduates of universities specializing in the field of communications among us. If we talk about Moscow, this MTUCI, MSTU im. Bauman, MAI.

– Alexey Belonozhko, MTS Lead Engineer

If you want to have to training cellular service technicians, try on the requirements and recommendations for employment as an engineer. Their us J. MTS.

education highly desirable higher profile, radio engineering.

Typical Tasks: acceptance, maintenance, repair of equipment of the radio subsystem of base stations and radio relay stations, operation of power supply systems.

Basic requirements (engineer):

▪ knowledge of 2G-5G networks and schemes of operation
▪ knowledge of radio engineering, fundamentals of radio wave propagation.
▪ knowledge of operation of networks based on RRL and optical fiber.
▪ knowledge in electrical engineering
▪ knowledge in the field of labor protection and electrical safety

When we get to work pay attention to experience. For example, it can be a student with an unfinished profile, who managed to work for 2-3 years in a contracting organization and got an idea of ​​​​how the general network works.

– Nikolay Sidorov, engineer of the 1st category of MTS

Additional requirements (senior engineer):

▪ experience with some suppliers: NSN, Huawei, NEC, Intracom, UEPS, SvyazEngineering, Mayak

▪ possession of a driving license category B and driving experience of at least 3 years
▪ IP addressing, routing

Extended requirements (Lead Engineer):

▪ commissioning of a cellular base station and RRS
▪ identification and elimination of deficiencies in the work performed on AFU, BS and RRL
▪ merging, broadcasting
▪ technical English

Is the job of a cellular network engineer very dangerous?

This is a profession for active and active people – essential health requirements for an engineer:

Extremely important preparation for the explosion. The person should be in charge of the tower or walk through the snowy field with the discussion. It can be blocks of 20 kilograms, which must be lifted to a height of 70 meters. Or antennas of 30-40 kg or more, for example, multi-sector antennas with radio module detection, this 60 kg!

– Nikolay Sidorov, engineer of the 1st category of MTS

Annually recurring patient examinations, on the basis of which you decide on admission to work. In addition to this, you need to follow safety precautions and be aware of the risks.

A there are enough risks in this workarrival from an accident and ending with a fall in height.

In addition to health, it is also important emotional Preparation. The absence of fear and fear of settings is a must here. The height of some towers is up to 125 meters, which must be overcome and safely descended.

Is there career growth for engineers at MTS

In this work, without stairs just nothing, literally and figuratively.

I came to MTS as a technical specialist. Then he became an engineer. Further, if a person introduces himself later and the return is visible from him, there is the next step – a senior engineer, a leading engineer, an expert, a senior expert, a leading expert. This is not just an entry in the “labor”, specific work, the scale of tasks and, of course, salary directly depend on this.

– Alexey Belonozhko, MTS Lead Engineer

There is a connection, there will be a connection

Thanks to the daily work of thousands of network engineers, we use the mobile Internet anytime, anywhere. If something does not work, it is these people who rush to help, regardless of the weather and time of day.

Many thanks to MTS, as well as personally to Alexey and Nikolai for their help in the production of the material.






Source: Iphones RU

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I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.

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