Technical Support Engineer In Ipd Business Unit

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

By Ali Aziz

INTRODUCTION

In this career episode I would like to describe the project that I worked on during Nov 2008 to Oct 2010. I was working as a Snr. Technical Support Engineer in IPD Business Unit of Alcatel Lucent for Mobilink (Vimpelcom Company) on Mobilink Infinity Account, a well known Telecommunication Company in Pakistan. Mobilink Infinity was one of the biggest projects of Mobilink in WiMAX Technology and first operator to have both GSM and WiMAX Technologies deployed in their deployed Network in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND

Alcatel-Lucent is a solution provider for data and telecommunication systems and related services which covers a wide range of technologies including IP and mobile networks.

My Duties and Responsibilities:

Integration, Configuration, Optimization and Support of Alcatel-Lucent 7450 ESS-6 serving as CE (Customer’s Edge) in Mobilink Infinity (WiMAX) Program.

Integration, Configuration and Support of OMNI 6850E serving as CE (Customer Edge) for Asignaling over IP and Gb over IP.

Configuration and Support of Alcatel-Lucent 8628 Multi Media Instant Conferencing (MMIC) Server deployed for inhouse and outhouse activities in Mobilink GSM.

Configuration of ALU 7450 ESS-6 (VPLS, IES) as per Network Design Diagram. 

Configuration Fiber/Ethernet ports (Trunk/ LAG’s) on ALU 7450 ESS-6 as per requirement and NDD. 

Migration of live network from Omni Switch 6850 and Huawei Edge Router to ALU 7450 ESS-6.

Coordination with Level 3 Support (Turkey) for resolution of TASC ticket of ALU 7450 ESS-6.

Weekly backup of ALU 7450 and OMNI 6850E configuration.

Monitoring and analyzing radio traffic statistics to improve performance of the Network.

Performing and evaluating drive test logs and generating DT reports with recommended actions.

Frequency Planning, Neighbor Planning and Frequency Auditing for existing and new sites.

Perform Engineering Survey, Documentation, Site Acquisition of BSS sites for confirming the availability of proper space and specification requirements for Alcatel equipment.

Personal workplace activity

My job duites as support Engineer & RF Engineer included Planning and Managing Wireless Projects their Deployments, Configurations, Maintenance and Operations for Point-to-Multipoint connectivity over 3.5 GHz and Point-to-Point connectivity over 5.8 GHz Band, for Broadband and Data Circuits.

As a support engineer I was first assigned the task of optimizing the RF network and making reports on the coverage. Mobilink Infinity was in the soft launch phase at that time. Friendly user testing were in progress along with throughput testing. I worked with RF team for making all the coverage maps and optimizing the network so that when Infinity was commercially launched on our solution, we should have proper coverage in all the promised areas. The tool/software we used was XCAL (Tool for the drive test in WiMAX). This tool is a very efficient one. By using it we can generate all the RF parameter reports showing the CINR (carrier interference noise ratio), RSSI (Receive signal strength intensity) and transmit power optimization details etc.

My skills for drive testing are always appreciated to great deal. I conducted drive testing of around 70 plus sites out of 250 sites in the south region. XCAP (Tool for drive test results processing in WiMAX) was the tool we used for the processing of the results and generating the RF coverage maps and reports. Those reports and coverage maps are very useful in the future parameter changes for the optimization in accordance with the customer requirements.

With the help of those reports physical parameters changes were also changed. For improvements in the RF coverage, RF surveys were conducted on the wimax sites keeping in view the orientations and tilts of the RF antennas. NPO (Network Performance Optimizer) is the tool used for the optimization. This tool helps us take the performance test of the RF sites so that we address the issues of slow browsing, camping/decamping issues and VOIP (voice over internet protocol) issues.

The most important part of my work was to develop detailed reports on day to day and weekly basis. Those reports contained all the work performed on the day to day and weekly basis showing the changes we made and the results obtained afterwards.

Hammer Call Analyzer is used for the VOIP testing. Two RF parameters RSSI and CINR are monitored closely with the environmental changes to improve the voice quality. SBC (Session border control) is the device used with the NGN (next generation) Router for providing the VOIP services to the customer. Testing the different vendor products to get the perfect compatible device for our network so that that VOIP service can be offered to the customer. Zyxel was the Initial CPE vendor we used but later IOT’s with Siemens CPE’s were more satisfactory and were than deployed in Customer Premises. With the directional antenna type used in the Siemens device made it the preferred device for both the services i.e broadband internet and VOIP. Zyxel was using the omni-directional antenna for their indoor devices.

I was regularly deployed on our MSC (Mobile switching center) where the main controlling unit WAC (Wimax Access Control) is installed. WAC controls all the access points installed in the network. My main duty there was to analyze the network traffic flow and the upgrading of the customers CPE firmware. We were having 15000 plus customer at that time. So getting them upgraded was a very tough task but I did it on time.

The tests which I performed after the firmware/software migration are Network Entry test, NW entry sensitivity test, Ping Test ,PER (Packet Error Rate) Test, Throughput VS Coverage Test, Throughput VS Speed Test, Simultaneous DL VS UL Test, NW capacity Tests, Backhauling test, VoIP Tests(Using X-Lite / CPEs).

After the commercial launch I was deployed with the team to look after the Microwave link installation for corporate customers like banks and multinational etc and their monitoring and maintenance. These MW links are the same as that of normal microwave transmission used in the sites backhauling. I have hands on experience of installation, commissioning and operation of varieties of MW equipment.

I conducted TSS (Technical site survey) before the installation of the link. The survey consists of checking the line of site (LOS), vendor suitable for the customer, the type of solution according to the customer requirement, Coordinates of the location, building height, Azimuth (angle) and then using the software PATHLOSS 4.0 to make the connectivity plan for the link and check if any interference issue persist. I calculated the interference, fade margin and TSS details for the processing of LINK BUDGET and provided the installation team, guidelines for the link installation.

I designed a system for recording the Progress update which needs to be updated on daily basis with the progress of work performed on the site and visited sites regular in-order to check and verify the site condition as per shared progress sheet and also seized photographs of site which helped me in evaluating the sites and informing the higher management with the overall progress.

I monitored the time spent on activities Vs the time originally estimated. I reviewed & updated the project plan regularly, reallocating resources and rescheduling activities as required.

In Mobilink Wimax Project, I used my engineering abilities to meet the latest requirements of Telecom industry. My main objectives were to work as a team and develop a workable solution that could help others to complete this type of exercise in a given time frame successfully.

SUMMARY

I used my engineering abilities to meet the latest requirements of Telecom industry. My main objectives were to work as a team and develop a workable solution that could help others to complete this type of exercise in a given time frame successfully. Also I learnt to always use economical solution in engineering to be successful.