Blog 22: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

I am most positive towards my audience response to my presentation. Mostly everyone in the audience seemed to love how I presented because a lot of the juniors told me that they learned alot in the short block that we had, and that they loved the humorous jokes I threw in their to lighten the mood of the crowd. This made me proud because I knew that I did really good if the students told me that they really enjoyed my presentation.

(2) Questions to Consider

a. What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?

Honestly, I believe I deserve a P+ or higher.

b. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

I believe I deserve a P.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

In my senior project I believe that mentor, Oscar Holzmeister, has had the most contribution to my senior project. He helped me with my presentation, gave me sources for research, and gave me ideas on who to interview. I am so glad that I had a mentor like Oscar because he always assisted me in anything that I needed help with in my senior project and always had the time to help me.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I felt I would've done much better with my exit interview, so I would probably go back in time and spend more time practicing on what to say and how to respond properly to the questions. 

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors? Be specific and use examples.

Since I love technology and I am aiming for a major related to technology, my senior topic, RF Field Engineer, has allowed me to understand what it's like to work as an engineer and work with hardware and software issues. Hopefully I can find a career related to this topic one day.  

Blog 21: Mentorship

Content:

Literal:

Link is on the side of my blog labeled mentorship log hours under the heading mentorship.

Contact Name: Oscar Holzmeister

Mentorship Place: There isn't one place we work at because we travel to different cities every single time I do mentorship.

Interpretive

What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

The most important thing that I gained from this experience is all of the information that I know about Cellular Networks. Since I would like to pursue a career in engineering, mentorship at T-Mobile as RF Field Engineer has taught me alot about how the cellular network functions, and it's a good first step to take towards learning what it's like to be an Engineer. From the cellular networks I will be applying what I learned to my future college courses and maybe even career, since I will try to major into something related to the smartphone industry. Obviously, I am not an expert towards knowing everything about the cellular networks, but from most of my knowledge, it's always good to know the basics.

Applied

How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ? Please explain.

From my firsthand experience with troubleshooting Radio Base Stations I have come up 3 stable answers to my EQ. My three answers have to do with software, hardware and power issues in the RBS, and from these you can troubleshoot the cellular network in a city. For example, my first answer focused on power issues in the RBS, and I had come up this answer due to the many experiences I have had to deal with power issues in the RBS. 

In my second answer, I asked my mentor if he would provide me with any sources for research and in response he handed me a handbook called, RBS O&M for T Mobile Modernization by Ericsson. He told me that this handbook would explain all the type of issues that occur in the cellular network. And the first thing that I had read were all of the different types of hardware's in an RBS and what type of issues could occur within the hardware of an RBS. This is how my I came up with my second answer towards my EQ.

For my last answer I had a pretty hard time coming up with software issues. I wasn't sure if this was a good answer, because I had first come up with this answer through a few mentorship experiences that I had done. To assure myself of this answer, I asked my last interview what he thought were some issues in an RBS, and from his response he had mentioned "software problems" and that is how I came up with my third answer. 

Blog 20: Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question and answers? What is your best answer and why?

My essential question is how can an RF Field Engineer best troubleshoot cellular coverage in a city?, following up with three answers, the first one being, identifying whether a power outage is an external or internal issue in a Radio Base Station. My a second way, is by analyzing and replacing a damaged hardware component within a Radio Base Station, and my final answer is by troubleshooting the internal software within a Radio Base Station. My best answer to this question, corresponds to my first answers, by identifying a power outage, because over my months of experience with issues in an RBS, with my mentor, we have encountered power issues being the most common issues. Sure the other two answers are issues that can be fixed as well but if their isn't any power within the RBS, then none of the equipment within the RBS will work properly.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

I came up with this answer through my mentorship experience. On November 18, I was first exposed to a power issue, more significantly an external power source issue, and the power wasn't working within the RBS due to the station being vandalized, meaning that the power cables from the main power source had been completely stolen. Now dealing with an internal power issue, I had my first encounter on November as well, where my mentor discovered that the 2G system was down due to a power issue. To solve this issue we found the control unit had defective cable within the internal compartment of the radio. These encounters were one of my first times that I did mentorship, and overtime, I came up with my first answer through more power issues that I encountered.

(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

Most of the problems that I faced, were power issues, hardware issues, or software issues. When it came down to power issues, we needed to locate the Local Power Issue within the Radio Base Station. We had to first check the power that comes from the mainline that comes from the transformer and that goes through the power meter. Usually when that’s the issue transformer has to be replaced. If that isn't the problem then you must check the power panel in the site because their could be a bad fuse, loose cable, or a breaker that tripped off which needs to be replaced. If the power issue is not an external issue, then it would most likely be an internal issue. In this case, you have a device that has burned out and is damaged within the inside. Usually those devices are radios, transmitters, or even the Power Source Unit, this becomes into a hardware issue. When it's a hardware issue, we needed to replace the damaged equipment's with one that is working and upgraded. And I also encountered software issues, where if the base was out-of-date, then we need to load a new up-to-date software so it has more capacity, and its faster.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

The most significant sources is my mentor, because through the opportunity to be able to mentorship with him and have first hand experience with Radio Base Stations, he has allowed me to come up with all of my answers and my EQ.
My second most significant source, is a book called, Ericsson WCDMA System Overview, because it has a good explanation of how the cellular network works, and what are the different types of issues within a Radio Base Station. It explains those issues in a very detailed manner.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Literal


(A) “I, Facundo Holzmeister, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

(B) My Mentor, Oscar Holzmeister, helped me complete my independent component 2.

(C) Independent Digital Spreadsheet link is under the Mentorship Log link.

(D) I have dedicated 30 hours of my mentorship to my independent component 2. I believe that I have gained more knowledge about Radio Based Stations than I did when I completed my first independent component. I assisted my mentor with troubleshooting RBS around many different cities. I have experienced hardware issues, software issues, data issues, and power issues. I have learned to analyze cables and check if they are in good condition, replace damaged hardware within the internal and external components of the station, and have learned to upgrade the software or install new software into the RBS remotely.

Interpretative

Testing the signal speed for a New RBS just recently installed.

Checking a set cables to an antennae
to see if it's receiving proper power.

The radios to a Radio Base Station that we had to analyze
and upgrade the software to because it was out of date.

Power problem with the AC Unit, due to someone standing
on this cable and tearing it apart.

My mentor trying to access the key for the
apartment building because the RBS was in the basement of
this building.

Updating the software within the RBS.

This program shows us what problems their are in an RBS,
and in this RBS their was three hardware problems.

The location to an RBS was within these walls.

The antennae to an RBS was located within this building.

Applied

During my experience of my independent component 2 I have learned much more about RBS and all of the different problems that an RBS can have. I gained alot of experience during a training that I had to do with my mentor because I had been taught by one of T-Mobile's top engineers, and he explained how an RBS works, the entire spectrum of T-Mobiles network and issues within the RBS that occur every so often, such as software and hardware issues. From this I knew how to find more research on my topic, and how to better answer my EQ with my second and third answer. I also had to install new software to an RBS that was just built into the area, with the help of my mentor and from this I had come up with my third answer. I understand how the cellular network fully works and how I can improve my research.

March Monthly Post: Get Faster Data Speeds

Requirements:

• Root
• Android Device

For all of those who own an Android and want faster data speed check out this application on the Google Play Store, called 3G/4G Speed Optimizer developed by Vista. This application optimizes your Data network speed so you can obtain better data speeds. Without this application, I would be getting around 1.27 mb/s download speeds and 0.24 mb/s which is not the best. And with the application enabled, I obtained 1.87 mb/s download speeds and 0.31 mb/s upload speeds, and from these results you can see the results of this application.

How it works:
It optimizes the Build.prop in your phone to obtain a better scan for data.

Video example provided by my best friend: Daniel Ariza.

Enjoy!

Blog 18: Third Answer

EQ:

How can an RF Field Engineer best troubleshoot cellular coverage in a city?

Answer #3:

By troubleshooting the internal software within a Radio Base Station.

3 Details:

1. Two key issues in the implementation of software radios are the development of optimal receivers that require the minimum number of bits in the wide-band analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and efficient channelizers that extract individual channels from the digitized wide-band signal.
2. The idea of software radio is to place the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) as close as possible to the antenna, ideally right after the low noise amplifier (LNA) and bandpass filter (BPF), thus the remaining RF/IF functions, such as channelization, downconversion, synchronization, and filtering, can be performed digitally on a general purpose processors (GPP) to provide the full advantages of reconfigurability.
3. The main advantage of software radio is flexibility. Application developers are interested in software radio because operating characteristics of the radio can be changed on-the-fly: frequency band, modulation scheme, error correction, etc

Research Source:

Lee, C. (2008). Power-efficient integrated cognitive and software radio system: Architecture, algorithms, and protocols. (Order No. 3299835, Princeton University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 202. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304508399?accountid=10357. (304508399).

Zangi, K.C.; Ericsson Inc., Traingle Park, NC, USA ; Koilpillai, R.D.

<http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=761036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel4%2F49%2F16463%2F00761036.pdf%3Farnumber%3D761036 >

Blog 17: Fourth Interview Questions

1. How can an RF Field Engineer best troubleshoot cellular coverage in a city?
2. In your experience, how do you think the cell phone has affected the lives of other people?

3. How do you think T-Mobile, can improve cellular networks and data speeds?

4. Which carrier do you think has the best networks speeds as of right now? Why?

5. What is the next generation of cellular networks and how fast will it be?

6. When working with cell sites, what are some of issues you have to troubleshoot?

7. In your experience, what are some hardware issues you have had troubleshoot?

8. Similar question, what are some software issues you have to troubleshoot?

9. What types of problems can you remotely troubleshoot for an RBS?

10. What precautions do you take in a red zone area at night?

11. What do you do if you cannot find or enter an RBS due to lock doors or different locks?

12. Do you believe that an RF Field Engineer impacts the lives of others? Why or why not?

13. What do you do with the damaged equipment of an RBS once you replace it?

14. How do you report to T-Mobile that you fixed an issue in an RBS?

15. If an RBS is located inside a small room and you accidentally get locked in what should you do?

16. What do you do if their is a living animal, such as a poisonous snake, inside the RBS?

17. What happens around the area of an RBS that does not work?

18. If you cannot resolve a problem within the RBS what do you do in response?

19. What determines the location of an RBS?

20. In your experiences, why would you need to call a general contractor?

Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

Answer #2: 

By analyzing and replacing a damaged hardware component within a Radio Base Station.

___________________

1. Damages within the "radios" of an RBS due to the internal components of that radio being burned out, damaged, or the cables are torn or ruined. In response we replace the Radio with one that is working.

2. Antennae for the RBS is not working, due to the cables being damaged, the connectors are loose or water damage caused the antennae to burn out. In response an RF Field Engineer, must contact a general contractor to come and replace the damaged components in the antennae, since they have the equipment to go to the top of the antenna.

3. Within the RBS their is always a Climate System (AC UNIT) that keeps the RBS cool, if damaged all of the hardware components become extremely hot in a short amount of time. An RF Field Engineer must contact an AC contractor to replace the AC unit.

___________________

1. Evolution of Mobile Base Station Architectures

2.  A rare look inside an LTE cell site, operated by Sprint in San Francisco

3. Advanced baseband technology in third-generation radio base stations

4. Base Station Hardware Manual

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

For independent component 2, I plan on doing more mentorship. I will assist my mentor in Troubleshooting RBS and will try to explore more in depth about Radio Frequency, not just the basics.

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

To show the evidence of my 30 hours, I will take pictures everytime I am doing mentorship.

3. And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

I will gain a more comfortable and reliable feel since I will be constantly going to mentorship and doing most of the same work. I will also be with my mentor more and he will be explaining what to do in a situation I can't seem to troubleshoot.

Independent Component 1

Literal

(A) I, Facundo Holzmeister, affirm that I have completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(B) My source that helped me complete the independent component was my mentor, Oscar Holzmeister. I assisted him with troubleshooting the cellular coverage in different cities. 

(C) Independent Digital Spreadsheet link is under the Mentorship Log link.

(D) During my 31 hours of mentorship dedicated to the independent component 1, I assisted my mentor with operating and maintaining a variety of Radio Base Stations (RBS) around different cities. Overtime, I have learned that most of these Stations fail to transmit and receive communications due to damaged equipment within the RBS. The most common issues being, a power source issue, and a hardware or software issue, and I have been exposed to each of this problems as well as some unique problems. 

Interpretive

All of the work that I have been doing so far, has assisted me with my component. Like I said before, in my Literal D answer, I assisted my mentor by troubleshooting Radio Base Stations that had damaged equipment and caused issues in the cellular network. Being exposed and demonstrated how to fix these issues with the right tools, I had a confident and accurate answer towards my Essential Question (EQ) and 3 possible answers for my final presentation. For example, my EQ was, "How can an RF Field Engineer best troubleshoot cellular coverage in a city?" and my answer one was "Identify whether a power outage is an external or internal issue in a Radio Base Station." I came up with this answer through my mentorship experience. On November 18, I was first exposed to a power issue, more specifically an external power source issue, and the power wasn't working within the RBS due to the station being vandalized, meaning that the power cables from the main power source had been completely stolen. 

My mentor determining which equipment
 within the power panel and RBS weren't receiving power. 

Vandalized Equipment, or stolen cables
within the power source

My next exposure was on December 27, where the main power source to an RBS had been completely ran over by a vehicle. In this situation, I discovered that we needed to contact a General Contractor to also help us replace this source of equipment just because it was so out of hand. I also learned how to check for the power source and how a power generator works. 

Main Power Source that got ran over by a car.

Testing whether the Power Source Cables
were hot, and they were at 250 volts.

Experts had to remove the hot cables
from the sidewalk for safety reasons.

Those are just two examples that helped me best with my components. There were many more power issues that I had to deal with throughout my mentorship such as on December 28, and December 31. There were also hardware issues where I had to replace sets of equipment and transmitters within a Radio Base Station which will assist me in my upcoming presentation and my research as well.

Removing a Damaged equipment within an RBS

The damaged radio we replaced

Me logging the site details

If you need more proof of my 30 hours of work, took pictures every single time I did mentorship. I uploaded the on dropbox which you can check them out Pixtures: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rrfgvh06kajbjx3/Nauhx8lvGu

Applied

Well I pretty much answered this question above, but like I said before being exposed to different types of issues within a RBS had most definitely helped me figure out different answers to my EQ. In my 30 minute presentation I mostly focused on a power issue within an RBS, because I had found through my mentorship experience that most of the common issues within an RBS was a power issue. This also helped stabilize my foundation for my senior topic, because I now know all of the issues within a RBS, I know how to troubleshoot each one and know the very basics of how everything works within an RBS. For example, one of the experiences that really allowed me to learn all about my foundation towards RF Field Engineer, was on September 10 when I assisted my mentor in installing a software that allowed the RBS to run and function. This 4 hour experience showed me what how the equipment's functioned, the software and what happens when their is an issue within the cellular network in a city. 

The RBS with the Radios, Transmitters, and Receivers. 

The RBS was located behind the LA Fair Plex.

Installing the software to the RBS.

January Post:

Over the past recent years, the top 4 mobile companies, Verizon, T-mobile, At&t, and Sprint, have been planning on installing cellular networks throughout the whole US and trying to improve their networks by installing more Radio Base Stations around every city. Even though their is alot of improvement throughout the networks, their are still alot of regions and neighborhoods that receive little to no cellular data at all, such as Chino, Chino Hills, and much more. If their is barely any cellular data around your house, it makes it really tough to make a phone call, send a text or just browse the internet on your phone.

So after doing some research on improving your cellular network around your home, I have come across this device called the "DT 4G" which could solve your problem. Basically this device will boost your signal, by amplifying 4G, and 3G from the outside of your house. It will improve your signal strength and data rates at the same time, and it works with all US Carriers. As of right now its not for sale, but its going to come out soon. They displayed this product at CES 2013, and it will come out this year for around $300.

Source: http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/store/display/243/45/dt-4g-coming-soon 

The DT 4G

Displays areas of where to place the DT 4G for better coverage around your home.

Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

1. Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

I am most proud of the way I presented my information to my classmates. I new my information really well and I tried to make it really simple for anyone to understand.

2. Questions to Consider
       a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

I would give myself a P+, because I feel like I knew my information about the presentation real well, the activity I created the activity effectively and I met time. Plus looking at the contract, I did a little extra by creating two EQ Posters and having everything prepared beforehand.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

What really went well was that their wasn't any technical issues with the powerpoint and I also had all my information that I had to talk about memorized.

4.  (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

I would have added more questions to the worksheet I handed out to the class with atleast 5 or more questions, because I feel like everyone finished the activity in a short amount of time.

5. Finding Value
What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?  

My answer 2 could be:

A hardware Issue.

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions (Updated)

10 Open Interview Questions

1. How can an RF Field Engineer best troubleshoot cellular coverage in a city?

2. Can you explain the various issues within an RBS?

3. If you cannot resolve a problem within the RBS what do you do in response?

4. What are your responsibilities when working as an RF Field Engineer?

5. If there is a hardware issue within an RBS, how do you find the damaged equipment? And what do you do to that equipment?

6. If there is a software issue within an RBS, what do you do?

7. In a cellular system, can you explain the meaning of a cell?

8. What happens around the area of an RBS that does not work?

9. Can you remotely troubleshoot an issue within an RBS?

10. Can you give examples of the Switch issues?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 hours check

1. Where are you doing your mentorship?
I can't really specify a location as to where I do my mentorship because with my mentor we are in the field meaning we travel between cities.

2. Who is your contact?

Oscar Holzmeister, whom is an RF Field Engineer for T-Mobile.


3. I have done 33.5 Hours

4. For the past couple of months, I have been helping my mentor troubleshoot various Radio Base Stations. I have replaced radios, replaced cables, reset Radio Based Stations, and assisting my mentor in anything he needed help on. You can see a variety of Radio Based Stations I have been in the past with my mentor, in my December monthly post.

Blog 10: Senior Project, The Holiday

1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?

Over the break, I completed 10 hours of mentorship for my senior project. With my mentor, we traveled to 3 Radio Based Stations to troubleshoot each one. The first RBS that we visited was located in the city of Compton. When we arrived to the area we immediately spotted the problem, because the power meter (Gives power to the Radio Based Station) had been run over by a truck.

First RBS

The second RBS we traveled to was in the City of Industry, and the problem with this site was that their was a power outage in the whole region. All of the lights were off, their was no electricity and we had to provide a power generator for the station until Edison brought the power back up.

Second RBS

Second RBS

The final RBS that I went to was located on top of a rooftop. The site had a simple issue which was that, the station had a bad setting. It took a really long time to discover out the problem as it was so small and we thought the solution was something else but we figured it out in the end.

Third RBS

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why? What was the source of what you learned?

The most important thing that I have learned from my mentorship experience over the break, was how to replace a radio for an RBS. This was very important because most of the times if their is an issue with an RBS it mostly comes through the radios that provide cellular networks to the public. So in order to fix the issue we need to replace the damaged one with a brand new one. It took a lot of responsibility because the radios cost around thousands of dollars and damaging another one would cause alot more problems. I learned to replace a damaged radio, through the help of my mentor when we arrived to the second RBS located on a rooftop.

3. If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

I would talk to my mentor's colleague because he has been an RF Field Engineer since my father has been and he can answer my questions in a whole new perspective from my mentor's interview.