Remote - Summer 2013 - (Page 10)

Feature Article Remote Monitoring: Is it a Global Trend? Ben Stump, Senior VP, Kentrox products Kentrox, a division of Westell Remote monitoring of sites such as cell sites, communications huts and substations has been critical for service providers in developed countries for many years. The US telecommunications industry, for example, has nearly reached the mobile phone subscriber saturation point, and subscribers expect service to be available anywhere, anytime. This has forced service providers and tower operators to ensure high quality, available and fast service to retain customers. Remote monitoring, which was important 10 years ago, is not only critical but imperative now. However, because of the high standards imposed by customers, remote monitoring isn’t enough and intelligent site management has taken priority. In emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America, the subscriber saturation point has not yet been reached and is still expanding rapidly. However, subscribers are starting to demand higher quality service with greater availability. This is leading service providers to expand beyond basic remote site monitoring to also include management and control of their entire network, often times without having to visit a site. Even though many issues of site management are the same between developed and emerging markets, the reasons for deployment may be different. Latin America is in the middle stage of market development, and technology adoption and remote monitoring is often based on the need to improve site security because theft and vandalism are extremely high. There are tens of thousands of unstaffed sites throughout the region, and service providers are looking for an intelligent site management solution to understand site access, if assets are being tampered with, and to provide surveillance. One tier 1 operator in Latin America was experiencing theft and vandalism at its top 500 sites in one country almost daily. This included copper theft, stolen site equipment, vandalism and graffiti. The main reasons for installing an intelligent solution were to reduce the theft and vandalism in an effort to minimize replacement equipment costs, reduce or eliminate network downtime for those sites, and implement security to provide safer site visits for personnel (employees and contractors). This operator deployed a comprehensive solution including access management, asset tampering and surveillance management. The sites across the network are remotely monitored to see who is accessing the sites (authorized or unauthorized) and specific areas within the site (shelters, gates, fences and access doors). If unauthorized access is detected, alarms and/or sirens are triggered to scare off potential intruders, and the operator and local authorities are notified. IP video cameras and motion sensors are installed that are remotely monitored using video surveillance and motion detection. Video surveillance is useful to ensure that outside contractors are completing work that is being invoiced to the operator, and the operator can see who visited the site and for how long. Images are also useful to provide the current site status to ensure it is safe to visit, very important for areas where crime is high and sites are in unsafe neighborhoods. Africa, similar to Latin America, is concerned with site security, but the main reason today for intelligent site management is remote monitoring and automated control to minimize energy consumption. A few years ago, monitoring fuel at African cell sites became critical for several reasons. For example, fuel theft (siphoning) is extremely common, which leads to generators running out of fuel before the estimated runtime has elapsed. It is not uncommon for third party refueling companies to add contaminants such as water to the fuel to reduce the fuel company’s costs. It is also common that a service provider or tower operator is invoiced for more fuel being delivered than the actual delivery amount (e.g. “short delivery”). Fuel monitoring has helped African providers reduce fuel costs and improve site availability in several ways. The owner is immediately notified if there is abnormal consumption, which helps reduce fuel theft. A notification alerts the appropriate personnel if contamination is detected. A large savings is provided by knowing the fuel level and estimated runtime available based on actual levels, so refueling schedules are optimized. There is no longer a 10 www.RemoteMagazine.com requirement to visit the cell site to top-up the tank on designated days each month, refueling only occurs when the tank reaches a predefined level. Finally, the service provider or tower operator has the data to validate third party billing based on actual refueling amounts. Now that African tower operators and service providers have a better understanding of fuel through remote monitoring, the focus in the last two years has shifted to overall energy management. Commercial power in many parts of Africa is often unstable due to the infrastructure. Power plants may be inefficient from lack of maintenance and upgrades, which can create an unstable power flow and surges resulting in power outages. Additionally, the demand for power is often greater than the supply available. Reliable backup power is critical, whether it is from generators, batteries, wind turbines, solar panels or other sources. A hybrid power management (HPM) approach (the ability to monitor, manage and control power from multiple sources) is often deployed throughout a network to make intelligent decisions when commercial power is unavailable. For example, if one phase of commercial power fails, then a generator would typically start to supply power until commercial power is restored. If an intelligent generator management application is installed, it can automatically determine (in real-time) that the site can run on only two phases of commercial power and therefore the generator will not start. This conserves fuel and utilizes the most efficient power sources. An HPM solution also enables service providers and tower operators to help identify the best use of power sources and provides for optimum efficiency when leveraging battery banks in conjunction with generators for power. For example, an HPM approach should automatically start a generator to recharge low batteries and then stop it once the batteries are fully charged. Additionally, the approach should discharge batteries only during ideal environmental conditions. Utilizing HPM will extend the life of site equipment and improve network availability. For service providers that are ready, the addition of solar, wind, or hydrogen fuel cell power is going to take the need for automated intelligent control and make it even greater. Africa is also taking security management to greater extremes than is being observed in the US or Latin America. Because crime rates are high, companies are deploying physical deterrents such as automated pepper spray to ensure site and equipment safety. One tier 1 tower operator has installed a pepper spray security device to the interior of a tower pole. This device uses motion detection to trigger the pepper spray. A remote connection is provided to the pepper spray controller that allows the operator’s NOC personnel to remotely disarm the pepper spray device when an approved onsite visit is required enabling the authorized personnel to work safely inside the tower pole. Once the work is completed, the pepper spray device is rearmed remotely. In Latin America and Africa, it is now common to have multiple service providers at tower sites. Understanding the power usage by each tenant is important. The ability to remotely monitor the site power and energy used reduces truck rolls and provides the tower operator the data to accurately http://www.RemoteMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote - Summer 2013

Editor's Choice
Grid Modernization and Cyber Security Trends
Navigating the Big Data Jungle - How Utilities Can Rise To the Challenge with Analytics
Remote Monitoring: Is it a Global Trend?
Critical Infrastructure, Crital Need
Solutions for Transformer Monitoring
Securing Remote Networks Against Cyber Security – NetFlow to the Rescue
ZigBee Resource Guide
SCADA
Networking
Remote Conference Update
Security
Onsite Power
Industry News
Application Feature

Remote - Summer 2013