Career Episode-2

Introduction
CE2.1

I was working as a BSS Engineer (Base Station Subsystem) in TIER-4

Pvt. Ltd when this project was initiated. I was stationed at Islamabad
HQ office of TIER-4. I started working on this particular project from
end of March, to be specific from 28 th March 2012 to 30th June 2012.
I remained a part of this project for 3 months until I was transferred
to a new BSS swap project. During the project execution, I worked in
different cities of north region of Pakistan and reported back to
north (Islamabad) office. I joined TIER-4 Pvt. Ltd on 1 st Dec 2011
and I have been working there since then.

Background
CE2.2

China Mobile Pakistan (CMPAK) started this project to overcome the

increasing need of more bandwidth (To increase the data capacity,
more users on the network). This project was called Media
Expansion Project. All the sites included in this project were remote
area sites when installed but now user traffic was increasing and
network capacity was not enough.

CE2.3

Huawei Technologies equipment was already installed on these sites

and these sites were configured on 1st E1 only but CMPAK needed
to do the 2nd E1 expansion on these sites (according to the current
network requirements). Huawei RTN (Radio Transmission Network)
900 series was already installed on these sites.

CE2.4

TIER-4 Pvt. Ltd was the subcontractor of Huawei Technologies.

Huawei outsourced the project to TIER-4. Technical scope of this
project included the execution of 2nd E1 expansion activities from
BSC (Base Station Controller) to the desired BTS site (Base
Transceiver Station).

CE2.5

As a BSS Engineer, I was responsible for executing the activities

(Second E1 Expansion activity) successfully that were assigned to
me by the project coordinator and to coordinate with customer
during the execution.

CE2.6

In activity execution, I was responsible for leading the media

expansion team, allocation, tracing, verification and patching of free
BSC port (for 2nd E1), Making cross connections and clearing media
according to the media route plan till the last terminal site and then

doing 2nd E1 expansion on the BTS of the terminal site. After the
activities, I was responsible for preparing and submitting the Media
record reports to the project coordinator.

Organizational Chart
Chief Technical Officer

Project Manager

Project Manager

Technical Team lead/Project

Coordinator

Me
(BSS Engineer)

(Technicians)

Personal Work Place Activity

CE2.7

The designing phase was already done and now the implementation
phase of the project was starting. I became a part of that project
implementation team and joined that training which included GSM
Architecture etc. I passed the test after the 4-day training and
reported back to my project coordinator.

CE2.8

In first meeting my project coordinator assigned me these activities

and gave the required documentation (e.g. Media Route Plan, BSC
port information, site coordinates, site guard information, work
order approved from customer etc).

CE2.9

I attended the activity briefing, went through the whole

documentation and came up with a plan to execute these activities
one by one. The first activitys media route plan had 2 sites in
between the BSC and the terminal site (Site on which 2 nd E1
expansion was required). All these four sites were linked via
microwave link (Huawei RTN 900 series). BSCSite ASite
BTerminal site.

CE2.10

I went straight to the BSC and called the NOC (Network Operations
Center) engineer. I explained the activity and gave him the
approved work order information. After site access, I gave him the
activity details. I told him the site ID for which I was doing 2 nd E1
expansion and asked for the BSC port number on which the 1 st E1 of
the terminal site was already configured. He gave me the 1 st E1 port
number and another free BSC port near to this one from which I
could take media for the 2nd E1 of the terminal site.

CE2.11

I located the ports and conducted a hard loop test. I

looped/connected the transmit pin to the receive pin physically with
help of a looping cord and asked the NOC engineer whether the port
was looped in the system or not. I then broke the loop by removing
the looping cord in order to recheck the port from NOC.

CE2.12

After the positive port verification, I found the first Microwave link
IDU (Indoor Unit) in the media route plan (BSCSite A) in the BSC
room and logged in with help of my company issued laptop using
WEBLCT (Software for Huawei RTN 900 series).

CE2.13

I notified the existing minor alarms on that Microwave IDU to the

NOC engineer. I then instructed the technician to trace out the
tributary cable connected to the media card of this microwave IDU
and lay a jumper cable connecting the free pair of tributary cable
(from Microwave IDU media card) to the free BSC port allotted by
the NOC Engineer.

CE2.14

Then I again logged in to the microwave IDU and found the link card
(IF card, Intermediate frequency) that was linked to Site A. I created
a software cross-connection between the specific pair of tributary
cable (Media card) that I used, to the available free slot of IF card, in
order to send this media to Site A via microwave link (BSCSite A).

CE2.15

Then with help of WEBLCT software I explored the Site A end

microwave IDU (Indoor Unit). I explored whether the next microwave
link in the media route (Site ASite B) was in the same RTN IDU or
in a different one on site A.

CE2.16

Next microwave link IF card was also in the same IDU, so I created a
new cross-connection between the previous link IF card free port
and new link IF card free port that was now linking Site ASite B.
There was no need to physically connect both IF cards via some
electrical or optical media because both links were in the same
microwave IDU indoor unit at site A, thats why I only created
software cross connections on site A.

CE2.17

After the media channel was clear up to site B, I explored the Site
B end microwave IDU with help of WEBLCT to check whether the
next links (Site BTerminal Site) IF card was in the same IDU or
not. That time for microwave link (Site BTerminal Site) a separate
microwave IDU was installed on site B.

CE2.18

I faced a technical problem when I again searched whether both of

these IDUs (Site ASite B) & (Site BTerminal Site) on site B were
connected physically with help of an Optical media or not. There
was no optical media card installed in both of those IDUs.

CE2.19

I created a software cross connection between IF card available port

and the tributary cable (media card) free port of the link (Site
ASite B) on site B end in order to terminate the media at Site B.

CE2.20

To be sure that the media channel was clear up to site B, I

conducted a soft loop test and looped the tributary port on which I
terminated the media on site B with an in-loop command in the
software. I called the NOC engineer and asked whether he was
getting a loop on the free Port of BSC he allotted me earlier or not.
He replied positive.

CE2.21

Then to overcome the problem, I left the BSC and came to Site B at
which I terminated the media earlier. I found the microwave IDU of
link (Site ASite B) and found its tributary cable.

CE2.22

I traced out the pair of that tributary cable on which I made the
cross connection and left media. Then I found the other microwave
link IDU (Site BTerminal Site) and traced out its free port of
tributary cable (media card). I instructed the technician to physically
connect both of those ports with help of a jumper cable.

CE2.23

After the connection, media was clear up to the last microwave link
IDU in the media route (Site BTerminal Site). Then I logged into the
IDU of that microwave link on site B end and created software crossconnection from that particular tributary port to the IF link card
available free port which was linking Site B to Terminal Site.

CE2.24

I explored the IDU at terminal site end and created a cross

connection of IF link card (specific port on which I already sent the
media) to the free port of its tributary card (media card). After the
media was through, I once again conducted the soft loop test on the
tributary card (media card) of the last terminal site IDU. Soft-loop
test was successful.

CE2.25

I then left site B and went to the terminal site. I traced out the
microwave IDU of link (Site BTerminal Site) on the terminal site
end. After I found the particular microwave IDU on terminal site, I
then instructed the technician to trace out the tributary cables
specific port on which I already sent the media.

CE2.26

I instructed the technician to connect the particular tributary cable

port (pair) to the 2nd E1 (2nd pair of tributary cable) of the BTS
(Huawei BBU 3900) of the terminal site. The light yellow led of 2 nd
E1 on BTS turned off so I called the NOC engineer and told him that
the media was clear. NOC engineer then started BSC port
configurations.

CE2.27

In the meanwhile, I faced another problem of high Bit Error Rate. I

tried to troubleshoot the issue by changing the tributary cable at
the terminal site but the problem still existed.

CE2.28

I checked the hard patching (For lose connections) and I also

changed the BTS E1 number (i.e. I patched the 3 rd E1 of BTS instead
of 2nd) but the problem was not rectified. At last I went back to the
BSC and asked the NOC Engineer to give me another BSC free port
near the existing one.

CE2.29

I changed the BSC port by removing the jumper connection from

existing BSC port and patched that jumper to the new BSC port. I
then called the NOC engineer and told him to configure this new
BSC port.

CE2.30

The problem was rectified and 2 nd E1 status of the terminal site was
normal. I called my project coordinator and told him that 2 nd E1 of
the site was normal and media expansion activity was successful.

CE2.31

I followed safety precautions like use of Insulated tools, compliance

of network safety guidelines, equipment groundings and use of
selected and approved safety gear PPE (Personal Protective
Equipment). Strict Compliance of EHS Environment, Health and
safety polices of our organization throughout the project was
ensured.

CE2.32

After completion of each media expansion activity in that project, I

prepared Media Record Reports according to the template shared by
the customer. I submitted those reports to the project coordinator
after every media expansion activity.

CE2.33

I reported to my project coordinator throughout that project. He was

my supervisor and coordination with the higher management at
project level if needed, was done through the project coordinator.

CE2.34

I faced a lot of site access and work order verification issues during
this project. Many hours were wasted due to this issue and
sometimes we had to do the activity on next day. So I asked the
project coordinator to discuss that issue with the customer and
come up with a new process for work order approval and
verification.

Summary
CE2.35

Media Expansion Project was completed successfully and

overall huge success for TIER-4. This project met all
objectives and satisfied the customer need for which
initiated. All the functional and quality requirements
customer were met.

was an
the set
it was
set by

CE2.36

I learned a lot about the transmission side and gained a very good
experience working on the live network. I performed more than 25
media expansion activities during that period and all of them were
completed successfully and accepted by the customer. I contributed
by delivering the technical activities according to the customer
requirement within the given timelines. This project enhanced my
technical and team management skills and gave me confidence.

CE2.37

My project manager was very happy with my performance and

always treated me as the key resource in companys resource pool
after that project. My project manager recommended my name for
the post of project coordinator in upcoming projects.