WO2011074008A1

WO2011074008A1 - Integrated monitoring and control system

Info

Publication number: WO2011074008A1
Application number: PCT/IN2010/000817
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ajit Singh; Krishankant Jingar
Original assignee: NSG Networks Pvt Ltd
Current assignee: NSG Networks Pvt Ltd
Priority date: 2009-12-16
Filing date: 2010-12-16
Publication date: 2011-06-23
Anticipated expiration: 2012-06-16

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a system and method for monitoring and control in a cellular network including a Base Transceiver Station and a Power Unit thereof, in which a monitoring and control unit is coupled via a first set of communication link with the Base Transceiver Station and the Power Unit; and through a second communication link with the Operation and Maintenance Centre (OMC).

Description

INTEGRATED MONITORING AND CONTROL SYSTEM

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a cellular network, and more specifically, but not limited to, a system and method for monitoring and controlling Base Transceiver Station and its Power Unit.

Background

Traditionally, a separate Power Unit is provided in a cellular network to feed Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and they both work independently of each other. At present, there is no single mechanism to monitor and control both BTS and its Power Unit. But there are independent mechanisms for the monitoring and controlling both BTS and its Power Unit. However, there is no correlation between such existing mechanisms. Therefore, currently any management action on the BTS due to any kind of alarm is a manual exercise.

Figure 1 illustrates an arrangement of a cellular BTS site according to conventional art. In the given figure, 101 represents cellular BTS site. This cellular BTS site includes a Base Transceiver Station 102 and a Power Unit 103, where the Power Unit feeds power to the BTS 102. According to conventional art, BTS 102 and Power Unit 103 do not exchange any monitoring and control information related to each other, but independently communicate their monitoring information to a remotely located Operation & Maintenance Centre (OMC) 104. Generally, there is no communication related to monitoring and control information to Power Unit 103 to the OMC 104, only monitored information related to BTS 102 is communicated to the OMC 104. Therefore, no control action originates from the OMC 104. Though, at times Power unit 103 is independently monitored through alternate communication techniques like GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) from OMC 104 yet no control actions are automatically executed.

l Summary It is an object of the present disclosure is to provide a system and method for monitoring and controlling a Base Transceiver Station and its Power Unit locally through an integrated monitoring and control unit and to simultaneously communicate the monitored information to a remotely located OMC. The monitoring and Control unit is coupled via a first set of communication links to the BTS and the Power Unit; and via a second communication link, to the Operation and Maintenance Centre (OMC).

An embodiment of the present disclosure illustrates, a cellular Base Transceiver Station Site, comprising: a Base Transceiver Station; a power unit configured to supply power to said Base Transceiver Station; and a monitoring and control unit operatively coupled to said power unit and said Base transceiver Station via a first set of one or more communication links, and coupled to a remotely located Operation, Maintenance Centre (OMC) through a second communication link.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure illustrates, a cellular network, comprising: a Base Transceiver Station; a power unit configured to supply power to said Base Transceiver Station; and a monitoring and control unit operatively coupled to said power unit and said Base transceiver Station via a first set of one or more communication links, and coupled to a remotely located Operation, Maintenance Centre (OMC) through a second communication link.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure illustrates, a method of monitoring and controlling in a cellular system comprising a base transceiver station and a power unit feeding said base transceiver station, said method comprising: monitoring said Power Unit and said Base Transceiver Station; communicating said monitored information to a remotely located Operation, Maintenance Centre (OMC); and controlling operating parameters of said base transceiver station based on the monitored information.

Brief Description of Drawings The aforementioned aspects and other features of the present disclosure will be explained in the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 illustrates an arrangement of a cellular BTS site according to conventional art.

Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of an integrated monitoring and Control Unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Figure 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method of monitoring and controlling in a cellular system comprising a base transceiver station and a power unit feeding said base transceiver station in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Detailed Description

Exemplary embodiments now will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey its scope to those skilled in the art. The terminology used in the detailed description of the particular exemplary embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limiting. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements. The specification may refer to "an", "one" or "some" embodiment(s) in several locations. This does not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "includes", "comprises", "including", and/or "comprising" when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. Furthermore, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include operatively connected or coupled. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations and arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. "Wireless communication system" includes any communication system or any combination of different communication systems. The communication system may be a fixed communication system or a wireless communication system or a communication system utilizing both fixed networks and wireless networks. The protocols used, the specifications of communication systems, servers and user terminals, especially in wireless communication, develop rapidly. Such development may require extra changes to an embodiment. Therefore, all words and expressions should be interpreted broadly and they are intended to illustrate, not to restrict the embodiment.

The figures depict a simplified structure only showing some elements and functional entities, all being logical units whose implementation may differ from what is shown. The connections shown are logical connections; the actual physical connections may be different. It is apparent to a person skilled in the art that the structure may also comprise other functions and structures. It should be appreciated that the functions, structures, elements and the protocols used in communication are irrelevant to the, present disclosure. Therefore, they need not be discussed in more detail here.

Also, all logical units described and depicted in the figures include the software and/or hardware components required for the unit to function. Further, each unit may comprise within itself one or more components which are implicitly understood. These components may be operatively coupled to each other and be configured to communicate with each other to perform the function of the said unit.

Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of an integrated monitoring and Control Unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the given figure, block 201 represents a cellular BTS site which includes a BTS 202, a Power Unit 203 and an integrated monitoring and Control Unit 204. The Power unit 203 is used for power feeding the BTS 202. Further, the monitoring and Control Unit 204 is connected via a first set of communication links with the BTS 202 and the Power Unit 203; and connected to a remotely located Operation and Maintenance Centre (OMC) 205 through a second communication link. The first set of communication links are such as a Serial link, an Ethernet link or a Power Line Communication (PLC) link and the second communication link is a radio frequency link. According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, a mechanism of coorelation between the BTS and the Power Unit is established. Charge Control Unit (CCU) present in the Power Unit 203 acts as a local controller for the Power Unit. It performs local monitoring and configuration functions. The monitoring functions performed by the CCU are as follows: Low voltage disconnect, PWM charging control, Alarm, Emergency charging, Audio & Visual alarms, Load reset, Temperature compensation for PWM and DAC, K-factor calculation, Emergency shutdown, Night mode detection and solar power ^' monitoring.

Further, all the monitored information is communicated over the Power Line Communication (PLC) via the integrated monitoring and control unit 204 to the OMC. The integrated monitoring and control unit controls the configuration of the power unit. The configuration can be obtained from the OMC or can be set locally by the integrated monitoring and control unit. Furthermore, the integrated monitoring and control unit monitors the Power Unit periodically. The integrated monitoring and Control Unit takes appropriate actions based upon the monitored information.

Moreover, the major actions performed by the integrated monitoring and control unit are such as Night mode service, Low Power mode and Emergency actions. For the Night Mode Service, the state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery is monitored and accordingly the night mode alarm is et from the Power Unit. After acknowledging the night mode alarm from the Power Unit, the integrated monitoring and control unit sets the BTS into a night mode service. After setting the Base Transceiver Station in the night mode service results in low power consumption as the system is not being fully utilized and the charging is not being done.

During low power mode, depending upon the state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery in the power unit, the integrated monitoring and control unit sets the Base Transceiver Station into a lw power mode. After setting the Base Transceiver Station into a low power mode the handling capacity of communication traffic is reduced this further reduces the power consumption of the power unit. Thus, an effective power management is executed without losing time.

During Emergency, an Emergency Shutdown alarm is set by the Power Unit and the integrated monitoring and control unit is communicated to initiate the shutdown of the complete system. In this condition the power unit is unreachable and when the power unit detects that the stat-of-charge has reached a comfortable level, it resumes back the power to the Base Transceiver Station. Further, all the monitored information communicated to the remotely located

Operation and Maintenance Center (OMC) is as follows: configuration, alarm handling and accounting functions (such as duration and mode of charging by external power source for the billing settlement). However, all the control operations are performed locally by the integrated monitoring and control unit also takes actions regarding managing the supply of the excessive power generated from the power unit and depending upon the load of the traffic providing the power of the Base Transceiver Station.

Embodiments of a method for monitoring and control in a cellular system comprising a base transceiver station and a power unit feeding said base transceiver station as described in Figure 3.The methods are illustrated as a collection of blocks in a logical flow graph, which represents a sequence of operations that can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. The order in which the process is described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described blocks can be combined in any order to implement the process, or an alternate process. Figure 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method of monitoring and controlling in a cellular system comprising a base transceiver station and a power unit feeding said base transceiver station in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In step 301, the Power Unit and the Base TransceiverStation are monitored periodically for checking the stat-of- charge (SOC) of battery, duration and mode of charging by external by external power source for the billing settlement, BTS temperature, Battery life of the power unit, charging current in the battery and efficiency of the charging source (alternate source such as solar/wind. In step 302, all the consolidated monitored information is communicated to a remotely located Operation and Maintenance Centre (OMC) via integrated monitoring and control unit. Thereby, in step 303 the operating parameters of the base transceiver station are controlled based on the monitored information.

Embodiments of the system and method of power management as disclosed in the present disclosure provides an efficient power monitoring and control mechanism. The monitoring of power unit allows taking necessary action on Base Transceiver Station depending upon the conditions such as low power mode, night mode and emergency conditions. Moreover, the traffic load on the BTS and the power consumption is reduced. The present disclosure is applicable to all types of cellular BTS sites of a cellular network located in residential and industrial areas.

It will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in this art that various modifications and variations may be made to the embodiments disclosed herein, consistent with the present disclosure, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Other embodiments consistent with the present disclosure will become apparent from consideration of the specification and the practice of the description disclosed herein.

Claims

We Claim:

1. A cellular Base Transceiver Station Site, comprising: - a Base Transceiver Station; a power unit configured to supply power to said Base Transceiver Station; and a monitoring and control unit operatively coupled to said power unit and said Base transceiver Station via a first set of one or more communication links , and coupled to a remotely located Operation, Maintenance Centre (OMC) through a second communication link.

2. The site as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first set of communication links comprises a Serial link, an Ethernet link or a Power Line communication link.

3. The site as claimed in claim 1, wherein said second communication link is a radio frequency link.

4. A method of monitoring and control in a cellular system comprising a base transceiver station and a power unit feeding said base transceiver station, said method comprising: monitoring said Power Unit and said Base Transceiver Station; - communicating said monitored information to a remotely located Operation, Maintenance Centre (OMC); and controlling operating parameters of said base transceiver station based on the monitored information.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controlling of Base Transceiver Station comprising setting the Base Transceiver Station into a night mode when the power unit switches into a night mode.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said controlling of Base Transceiver Station comprising setting the Base Transceiver Station into a low power mode when the power unit switches into low power mode

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controlling of Base Transceiver Station comprising setting is performed by shutting down the Base Transceiver Station when the power unit switches into an emergency mode.

8. A cellular network, comprising: - a Base Transceiver Station; a power unit configured to supply power to said Base Transceiver Station; and a monitoring and control unit operatively coupled to said power unit and said Base transceiver Station via a first set of one or more communication links , and coupled to a remotely located Operation, Maintenance Centre (OMC) through a second communication link.

9. The network as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first set of communication links comprises a Serial link, an Ethernet link or a Power Line communication link.

10. The network as claimed in claim 1, wherein said second communication link is a radio frequency link.