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.