BTS Maintenance

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 1

Scope of the Presentation
Functions of the Base Station
Connectivity of Base Station and its position
in the network
Active/Passive Infrastructure at BTS site
BTS Hardware
Common BTS related faults and rectification
VSWR(Voltage Standing Wave Ratio)

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 2

Functions of Base Station
The Base Station provides the physical
connection of an MS (Mobile station) to the
network in form of the Air-interface.
Base Station transmits and receives radio
signal to/from MS.
One Base Station can support multiple
cells/sectors to provide coverage in different
directions.
Mostly one Base Station has 3 cells/sectors.

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 3

Name of Base Station in Different
Generation Technologies

Mobile Generation Name of Base Station

2G BTS (Base Transceiver Station)

3G Node-B

4G eNode-B

5G gNode-B

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 4

Connectivity of Base Station
The Base station is connected to antennas
through RF cable at one side.
On the other side, it is connected to the
controller/core equipment (depending on radio
technology) through OFC/Microwave Link/
Satellite as per feasibility.
For example 2G BTS is connected to BSC (Base
station Controller) through Abis Interface.
3G Node-B is connected to RNC (Radio Network
Controller) through Iub Interface.
The 4G eNode-B is connected to Core Network
through S1 Interface.
© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 5
Connectivity of BTS

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 6

Position of BTS in the Network

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 7

Active/Passive Infrastructure at BTS Site
Operation of a BTS site is combined working
of many components (shown in next pages).
Every component relies on other for its
proper operation.
Failure of one of these may result in
complete shutdown of the BTS.
Thus for proper maintenance of BTS,
maintenance of all these components is also
needed.

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 8

Active/Passive Infrastructure at BTS Site

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 9

Active/Passive Infrastructure at BTS Site

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 10

 BTS Hardware
BTS may be monolithic or it can be split into Radio Unit
and Baseband Unit (Connected to each other by optical
fiber).
BTS has following modules as per functions (although
for different manufacturer’s, their names may be
different and multiple functions may be combined in
single card)
 TRX Module
 Combiner/Duplexer Module
 Operation & Maintenance Module
 Transmission and Clock Module
 Power Supply Module
 External Alarm Module
 Fan Module
© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 11
 BTS Hardware

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 12

 Common faults in BTS
Power Supply Problem(Mains supply fail and Battery low
voltage)
Solution: Mains supply restoration/Check battery
backup/DG Should be started
Media Problem (Abis/Iub link down/ Bit Error/Packet
Loss)
Solution: Check transmission system /OFC/MW Link and
rectify
HW Fault
Solution: Check LED indications at site/alarms at NOC
and reset/change the affected HW
SW Configuration related faults
Solution: Should be rectified through Local/Remote login

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 13

 Common faults in BTS
Faults due to Incorrect Logical parameters
Solution: Should be rectified at OMC
Antenna /Feeder Cable Related fault (e.g. High
VSWR/Cable Swap/Azimuth and down tilt got disturbed)
Solution: Check and rectify with rigger help
Radio Unit related fault (Due to issue in Power supply to
RU/ Optical fiber (CPRI) Cable)
Solution: Check and rectify with rigger help
RF related faults
Solution: Investigate through drive test/traffic report and
rectify.
Other faults e.g. due to high temperature/improper earth
resistance
Solution: Check and rectify
© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 14
VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio)
High VSWR is very common Antenna/RF Cable related
fault.
Value of VSWR should be within threshold limit (In
general its value should be <1.3)
BTS monitors value of VSWR and in case of high VSWR
alarm is generated at OMCR.
If VSWR is high , poor coverage problem may occur in
the affected cell.
High VSWR occurs due to
 Loose Connection
 Moisture entry in RF cable
 Antenna/RF cable damage
VSWR value can be measured and fault can be localized
with the help of VSWR meter/ BTS tester.
© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 15
 BTS Tester

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 16

© BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED,BRBRAITT JABALPUR Slide No. 17