Thank you for the great video. Please never take it down. I’m sure people will find it useful in the future. And to those future watchers I would like to add a few comments. The quality of cable routing in this shed, at least from the perspective of a tech from the 1990s (my experience was with Wiltel), would be considered pretty terrible and likely result in unreliable service. Wiltels’ reliability was over 99.99999% uptime across their nationwide network. Based on my experience recently, carriers don’t even hit 90% uptime these days. Every wire should be tied down to the metal frame every two to three feet and you should never see bundles of extra in-service cables. Each cable should be a foot or so long on each end dropping down from the termination point to form a drip point in case the cable gets wet and allows for enough extra cable for reterminating. I hope when they replaced this 3g equipment they were given enough time to do proper cable runs. That brings me to my final point, I suspect the drop in quality of work in this facility is due to corporations constant, and unnecessary, cost cutting efforts. Since the late 90s the telecom providers have faced 0 liability for neglect of the networks and this facility is a great example of that. Again thank you for the very interesting video.
Same situation with power companies these days too. They have a monopoly and they're incentivized to defer maintenance then charge special assessments when big storms hit etc.
Do you know why the telephone company uses positive ground? Positive grounding has been used in the telecommunications industry for many years, primarily because the grounded positive electrode of a battery bank will corrode at a much slower rate than a grounded negative electrode.
In the mid to late 90’s I used to build base stations, in a warehouse, and we would ship them to the customers. We used to cable out Erickson 882 equipment in 7’ racks and install in the enclosures. Then we started installing Erickson 884 equipment, which was way more modular. Still way bigger than what is installed in this site. Around 2016-2017 we did a DAS (Distributed Antenna System) for Sound Transit Link Light Rail tunnels. We installed the 1 5/8” coax cable in 50’ sections for 2 1/2 miles in both tunnels, 5 miles total and around 500 antennas. What a pain in the butt those connectors were. Thanks for the tour!
When you mentioned cell-site security… Reminded me of transport equipment circuit-pack theft. (External equipment to the cell-site). One thing this thief may have not realized, the high-dollar component had Non-Volatile memory storage in-which either the manufacturer or end-user / edge company provisioner, placed site-name and other specific info. When this part was installed elsewhere, this site-specific info. would display. Bulletin was sent to all folks associated with this equipment to be on the lookout.
Thank you for taking the time out to do this video very informative is your Halo the same as a earth pit and how is that Halo setup also looking forward for more of this type of videos
Awesome video! I have a question, what happens to the old equipment when a site gets upgraded? Would they let someone buy it or aquire it for parts, experiments, repurposing, etc?
Incredible video, thanks for sharing this otherwise rather obscure information. Are you familiar with cell sites that don't have a hardwired fiber uplink back to the network? How do they handle wireless backhaul connections? Is it similar IP routing equipment, just using PTP wireless links instead of fiber? Or is it some kind of custom configuration? Was always curious. Thanks again!
there are options for wireless backhaul. point to point, point to multipoint for co-located wireless stations, and satellite interface for extremely remote locations. no custom configurations, and they all carry the same types of data. you just have to have the right equipment to interface and also take into account best practices for wireless (los, weather, etc).
Thanks for the inside view. What about back-haul? Once everything goes to the ethernet switch, how does that connect to the rest of the system? Copper? Fibre? Microwave?
Thanks for the comment. I was always told these cards did the initial transmitting and receiving. The rest of the cabinet is mainly amplifiers and filters of such.
LOL!! Locomotive cables. You're a bit off there, friend. The cables that power traction motors are as thick as your forearm. Well, MY forearm. Maybe not yours.
Apply. Be a hardscaler, oilman or rigger. That's for the tower work! Then go learn electronics to a level of an engineer ...then you are qualified! (I was wind worker for five years!)
Thank you for the great video. Please never take it down. I’m sure people will find it useful in the future.
And to those future watchers I would like to add a few comments.
The quality of cable routing in this shed, at least from the perspective of a tech from the 1990s (my experience was with Wiltel), would be considered pretty terrible and likely result in unreliable service. Wiltels’ reliability was over 99.99999% uptime across their nationwide network. Based on my experience recently, carriers don’t even hit 90% uptime these days. Every wire should be tied down to the metal frame every two to three feet and you should never see bundles of extra in-service cables. Each cable should be a foot or so long on each end dropping down from the termination point to form a drip point in case the cable gets wet and allows for enough extra cable for reterminating. I hope when they replaced this 3g equipment they were given enough time to do proper cable runs.
That brings me to my final point, I suspect the drop in quality of work in this facility is due to corporations constant, and unnecessary, cost cutting efforts. Since the late 90s the telecom providers have faced 0 liability for neglect of the networks and this facility is a great example of that.
Again thank you for the very interesting video.
Same situation with power companies these days too. They have a monopoly and they're incentivized to defer maintenance then charge special assessments when big storms hit etc.
Do you know why the telephone company uses positive ground? Positive grounding has been used in the telecommunications industry for many years, primarily because the grounded positive electrode of a battery bank will corrode at a much slower rate than a grounded negative electrode.
True for cars too. Posi ground cars have reduced corrosion.
@@DougDingus I think Chrysler did that for a short while in the 50's
In the mid to late 90’s I used to build base stations, in a warehouse, and we would ship them to the customers. We used to cable out Erickson 882 equipment in 7’ racks and install in the enclosures. Then we started installing Erickson 884 equipment, which was way more modular. Still way bigger than what is installed in this site. Around 2016-2017 we did a DAS (Distributed Antenna System) for Sound Transit Link Light Rail tunnels. We installed the 1 5/8” coax cable in 50’ sections for 2 1/2 miles in both tunnels, 5 miles total and around 500 antennas. What a pain in the butt those connectors were. Thanks for the tour!
I found it very informational, Thank You for the tour!
When you mentioned cell-site security… Reminded me of transport equipment circuit-pack theft. (External equipment to the cell-site). One thing this thief may have not realized, the high-dollar component had Non-Volatile memory storage in-which either the manufacturer or end-user / edge company provisioner, placed site-name and other specific info. When this part was installed elsewhere, this site-specific info. would display. Bulletin was sent to all folks associated with this equipment to be on the lookout.
Thank you for taking the time out to do this video very informative is your Halo the same as a earth pit and how is that Halo setup also looking forward for more of this type of videos
Can you define earth pit?
Earth electrode or ground rod depending on your terminology. The halo he is talking about is a circular loop or perimeter of the site earth electrode.
A couple VZW sites by me have their feedlines go through a pipe before going in the shelter. My only thought would be a choke for lightning??
Awesome video! I have a question, what happens to the old equipment when a site gets upgraded? Would they let someone buy it or aquire it for parts, experiments, repurposing, etc?
Incredible video, thanks for sharing this otherwise rather obscure information. Are you familiar with cell sites that don't have a hardwired fiber uplink back to the network? How do they handle wireless backhaul connections? Is it similar IP routing equipment, just using PTP wireless links instead of fiber? Or is it some kind of custom configuration? Was always curious. Thanks again!
Never heard of a cell site that does not use a fiber connection or microwave link.
there are options for wireless backhaul. point to point, point to multipoint for co-located wireless stations, and satellite interface for extremely remote locations. no custom configurations, and they all carry the same types of data. you just have to have the right equipment to interface and also take into account best practices for wireless (los, weather, etc).
If not fiber is available it’s usually microwave point to point, and today that means IP/Ethernet.
T1s were big back in a day for cell site backhaul.
Super cool, thank you!
Thanks for the inside view. What about back-haul? Once everything goes to the ethernet switch, how does that connect to the rest of the system? Copper? Fibre? Microwave?
Used to be all 3 but today it is mostly fiber. They usually buy service from the local provider in the area.
19:50 are the CDMA channel cards, responsible for baseband processing
Thanks for the comment. I was always told these cards did the initial transmitting and receiving. The rest of the cabinet is mainly amplifiers and filters of such.
Did they go thru and tear out the Lucent "Mod Cell" we had gen 4.0 at Sprint...
LOL!! Locomotive cables. You're a bit off there, friend. The cables that power traction motors are as thick as your forearm. Well, MY forearm. Maybe not yours.
Thanks for the description of this type of work. I'm curious as to how did you get into this field of work?
Apply. Be a hardscaler, oilman or rigger. That's for the tower work! Then go learn electronics to a level of an engineer ...then you are qualified! (I was wind worker for five years!)
Is the CDMA side still using T1 for their backhaul?
No you could see the backhaul on the router he showed, it is using fiber. Probably mpls from the local provider back to their own data center.
Discord link is invalid :/
Try the link on the main channel
Sounds like 1 VR5 by Spirent in the background. F U Agilent #POW MAY27 2024