Copyright RF Industries Pty Ltd 2014. Subject to change without notice.
rfiwireless.com.au
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Copyright RF Industries Pty Ltd 2014. Subject to change without notice.
rfiwireless.com.au
5
A comprehensive Alarm Log is also available to provide a
history of alarm events. This log can also be downloaded
as a CSV text file and used to create KPI reports such as
the number of faults, operating duration, MTBF, or MTTR.
When coupled with the History Log, this could be used to
provide a series of datasets on recurring faults, unreliable
equipments and related maintenance metrics.
If intermittent or sagging RF output power is suspected,
the Tx Power History Chart can show the performance of
the channels over a selected period of time. In the GUI,
hovering the mouse cursor at the top of any bargraph line
will display the actual value represented.
The time and date stamped History Log can be viewed
to identify or analyse specific event times. The log can
also be downloaded as a CSV text file and used to create
customised reports.
Network Availability (2011/12)
Available (97.1%)
Outages (2.9%)
Alarms by Type (2011/12)
Tx Alarms
Rx Alarms
Door Alarms
Fuel Alarms
OMCS & PMCS Software Integration – Manager Messages
The ASM also offers Manager Messages. These are UDP IP message packets that contain Traffic and
Status data created by the ASM measurement cycles. These ASM messages can be sent to nominated
IP addresses where they can be processed and the data utilised in third party software applications.
Total Alarm Hours (2011/12)
Tx Outages (234)
Rx Outages (23)
Total (257)
Importantly, if an outage was required to exchange a partially faulty antenna, but the level of impact was ‘minor’, then a routine
outage could be planned for a future date – rather than an ‘urgent’ outage on short notice – whilst still monitoring the fault in
case it degraded further. In addition to the cost saving in
delaying an unnecessary urgent response, the network
users are not inconvenienced by an unplanned outage
on short notice, a significant issue in operations-critical
networks.
Measurements from multiple sites can be collected,
collated, and presented in user-generated reports
showing overall network performance.
An “Act” indicator next to the reading for each channel
indicates if the value displayed was active during the last
measurement cycle, or whether it is an old reading from
past traffic on the channel.
Channel Diagnostics
The ASM also provides a GUI screen called Channel Diagnostics. When this screen is being viewed, the normal per-channel
measurement and data logging of all of the programmed frequencies is paused, and only the Tx and/or Rx frequency
selected on this Channel Diagnostics page is monitored and measured. This allows a faster measurement refresh cycle to
be provided during this focussed measurement activity.
Tx Monitoring
When Monitor Tx Channel is selected and the Start
button clicked, the nominated frequency is measured.
This may be considered similar to a digital power meter,
with both Tx Forward Power and VSWR being displayed.
This capability may be used to assist base station or
combiner tuning and/or testing activities, or to monitor
one transmitter constantly.
Rx Monitoring
When Monitor Rx Channel is selected in “Channel” mode,
the nominated frequency is continuously monitored when
the Start button is clicked. Rx Monitoring may be used
for several testing purposes. It can be used to monitor
the subscriber terminal inbound or uplink signal. This
is the base station’s received signal (RSSI), and the
resulting keyed Tx output is displayed as the Tx Fwd Pwr.
A displayed inbound Rx level, without a corresponding
Tx Fwd Pwr value may indicate a faulty base station – or
an illegal user or other interfering signal operating on the
monitored Rx frequency.
When the Monitor Rx Channel is in “Frequency” mode,
any frequency may be selected from the drop-down
fields (or entered directly) and monitored when the Start
button is clicked.
Transmitters at the site not being directly measured by the
ASM will usually be measurable on the ASM’s Rx port at a
level attenuated by the Rx system’s preselector rejection
and Tx-Rx antenna isolation at the monitored Tx frequency.
This feature may be used to monitor other frequencies
at the site, assisting in fault finding activities such as
desense or intermodulation analysis by monitoring the
level and co-incidence of other site users’ Tx or Rx activity.
In each of the Tx and Rx measurement fields the unit of measure can be selected for user convenience. When the user
navigates to another GUI screen, or if the Channel Diagnostics screen has not been used for a period of time, then the
normal per-channel measurement and data logging of all the ASM’s programmed frequencies automatically resumes.
