Monitoring quality of service and security of mobile phone towers

Posted by Publisher Picture Gallery, Telecommunication Tuesday, 2. October 2018

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Sigfox ? the world?s leading IoT connectivity service provider ? and Telxius ? the global telecommunication infrastructure provider of the Telefónica Group ?? are cooperating to develop a monitoring system for mobile phone towers. The goal is to monitor the quality of service (QoS) and security of telecommunication towers 24/7 in real time via the Sigfox connectivity service. With nearly 16,300 telecommunication towers in five countries, Telxius has one of the most extensive tower networks among independent infrastructure companies.
?Mobile phone towers are critical infrastructure components that require constant QoS and security monitoring. Sigfox delivers the necessary data in real time in a particularly cost and energy efficient manner, providing important information that Telxius can use to increase the security and QoS in its European tower network,? explains Vincent Sabot, CEO Sigfox Germany.
Using the Sigfox LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network), event and status changes can be provisioned in a central cloud independently of existing local installations or communication channels in order to initiate emergency measures or trigger maintenance and repair orders from there.
?Being able to monitor our infrastructure cost-efficiently is important to us,? explains Manfred Kickartz, Managing Director at Telxius Towers Germany. ?Sigfox is an IoT connectivity technology that significantly reduces the cost and energy consumption of M2M and telematics applications compared to earlier communication options.?
In addition, Sigfox signals have a greater range than mobile devices. If one tower fails, they can cover the distance between several towers and are also significantly more robust against radio interference. The sensor system with autonomous power supply, which can often be used adaptively, is also easy to install without any gateway or intervention in existing infrastructure. This makes the installation and operation of Sigfox-based monitoring systems very efficient.
Monitoring the QoS and security of mobile phone towers comprehensively requires a large number of sensors. The spectrum includes smoke, temperature and humidity sensors for the physical protection of the infrastructure; key, lock and acceleration sensors as well as other intrusion detection systems for spotting unplanned entry and vandalism; and voltage sensors for monitoring the QoS of the mobile phone towers. In future, highly sensitive motion sensors will also be employed to detect indicators of potential tower torsion, as the torsional stiffness of the installation is essential for the QoS of mobile phone towers. At times, the directional antennas of the telecommunication network have to transmit data 30 to 60 kilometers to the next tower. If the original signal deviates by 1 degree, target accuracy as well as signal range decrease significantly.