Antenna System Monitoring - ASM Series
© Copyright RFI 2012
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OTHER BENEFITS
The benefits don’t stop with the cost savings. The ASM can
store historical power and VSWR measurements for later off-
line analysis. This gives you the ability to monitor trends and
spot the need to perform network maintenance before the
system actually fails.
If, for example, the antenna or feeder suffers damage from
birds, hail or snow, it’s likely this will show up as poor VSWR
before the users notice any reduction in network coverage
performance. That gives you, the network operator, the
ability to conveniently schedule a site maintenance visit,
avoiding the need to send a technician to site urgently or
after hours.
The ASM monitors system performance in a permanently
installed, non-intrusive way. Repeatedly disconnecting
and reconnecting RF connectors compromises their
performance. Through loss, VSWR and especially PIM (Passive
Intermodulation) performance – so critical in today’s digital
networks – can be degraded. With an ASM installed, there
are fewer disconnection cycles on these critical connectors,
resulting in higher system integrity and improved long
performance and reliability.
Finally, the ASM brings an enhanced level of remote
monitoring capability to each of your sites. PMIs, with their
associated down-time, become largely unnecessary due
to the 24 x 7 monitoring by the ASM. You are able to see
exactly what each of your transmitters is doing right at the
antenna feed. Your Grade of Service, response times and
MTTR will all improve. In mission-critical networks, system
availability is maximised and down-time is reduced.
IN SUMMARY
None of this was really an issue before PMI became a genuine
expectation. Now that PMI is pretty much a requirement for
any significant network, the installation of an ASM brings
O&M and Opex improvements with a short payback period.
While the ASM offers some great functionality, its real value
lies in its ability to reduce your costs and to free up highly
valued and increasingly expensive and hard to find labour
resources.
