The Power Supply For the BTS sites

GHADDAR Machinery Co. s.a.l. Head Office Saida-Lebanon Tel: + 9617220000 Fax: + 9617223322 info@ghaddarmachinery.com www.ghaddarmachinery.com

The Power Supply For the BTS sites

Introduction to GSM

GHADDAR Machinery Co. s.a.l Tel: 9617220000 - 9611847770 Fax: 9617223322 - 9611847775
E-mail: info@ghaddarmachinery.com Website : www.ghaddarmachinery.com

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The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. More than 1.6 billion people use GSM phones as of 2005, making GSM the dominant mobile phone system worldwide with about 70% of the world's market. The advantage of GSM over the predessors technologies are quite common, some of them are: 1- It facilitates international roaming for the mobile phone operators. 2- It provides higher digital voice quality and low cost alternatives to making calls such as text messaging. 3- GSM was also the first to have SMS text messaging. 4- GSM is an open standard ; the ability to deploy equipment from different vendor now is posible. 5- The availability of prepaid calling from mobile phone operators.

The BTS or Base Transceiver Station

The BTS contains the equipment for transmitting and receiving of radio signals (transceivers), antennas, and equipment for encrypting and decrypting communication with the Base Station Controller (BSC). The BTS with the BSC forms what we call Base Station Subsystem or BSS, which function is to handle the traffic and signalling between a mobile phone and the Network Switching Subsystem. See the adjecent figure for understanding the role of BTS.

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The Power Supply For the BTS sites

The BTS site layout

GHADDAR Machinery Co. s.a.l Tel: 9617220000 - 9611847770 Fax: 9617223322 - 9611847775
E-mail: info@ghaddarmachinery.com Website : www.ghaddarmachinery.com

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As long as the BTS is the final fixed body that the GSM signal pass before it gets to the mobile phone, these sites should be spread in every locations the vendor wants to have subscibers for his network.. Accordingly, the BTS sites may be located inside the city centre, around the city or in remote areas. However, for the BTS site to work, it needs a supply of electric power in a range of 10 to 30kW, this power is dependent on the area to be covered, the topography of this area, and number of subscribers. The power supply of BTS site should be highly reliable and secure to keep the mobile phone of the subscribers working all the time.

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The Power Supply For the BTS sites

Electrical scheme of BTS site

GHADDAR Machinery Co. s.a.l Tel: 9617220000 - 9611847770 Fax: 9617223322 - 9611847775
E-mail: info@ghaddarmachinery.com Website : www.ghaddarmachinery.com

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As mentioned before, the BTS site needs a supply of electric power in a range of 10 to 30kW to work proberly. Any failure in the supply of any BTS site will lead to loss of GSM signal in the surrounding area and accordingly complaints from the mobile phone subscibers located in that area. It is intresting to realize that the subscibers always select the telecom company that they decide to get their service from according several factors: 1- Price. 2- Quality of signal. 3- Covered area. 4- Service. Hence, availability of relaible and secure power supply is a determining factor. In some poor applications, the adjecent schemes might be applied. These schemes are considered as the lowest reliable and secure supply, since they apply only one power supply to energize the BTS. If the Mains supply failed (this can be due to lightning strike, switching problem, distribtion tranformer failure, cable open or shorcircuit, and many others), or the small generator failed (this can be due to protection agaiast low oil pressure, high coolant temperature, over/under speed or voltage, low coolant level, abcesnce of fuel, voltage instability or any other engine or alternator problem). Hence, neither of the these two scheme could be applied in reputable telecom company sites, because its application will lead to a weak, and sometimes abcesnt, signal for the mobile phone.
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The Power Supply For the BTS sites

Selection of the suitable electrical scheme

GHADDAR Machinery Co. s.a.l Tel: 9617220000 - 9611847770 Fax: 9617223322 - 9611847775
E-mail: info@ghaddarmachinery.com Website : www.ghaddarmachinery.com

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The following three electrical schemes should be applied according to the importance of the site.

1- Scheme1: The supply is either from the Mains or the emergency generating set. This is the standard scheme that is applied in more than 90% of the applications. 2- Scheme 2 : The supply is from either of two generating sets where each of them will work periodically for 6 to 12 hours. This scheme is applied where no mains supply is available as in some remote areas. 3- Scheme 3 : The supply is from the Mains and two emergency generating sets. This scheme is applied in some extreme important sites or when the failure of the Mains is very common. Hence, the impotence of the site, its location and the status of the mains supply should be studied carefully before selecting the best scheme for the BTS site.
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