Powerful - DEV Systemtechnik · Ooredoo has built a massive new satellite downlink head-end in...
Transcript of Powerful - DEV Systemtechnik · Ooredoo has built a massive new satellite downlink head-end in...
66 67Vol. 35 No. 4 - November 2013 Issue Vol. 35 No. 4 - November 2013 Issue
Ooredoo has built a massive new satellite downlink head-end in Doha.
By Rainer Lorger, General Manager Sales & Marketing, DEV SystemTechnik GmbH
Powerful
ANGAANGA
Rainer Lorger has been DEV’s General
Manager Sales & Marketing since 2009.
Lorger’s main responsibility is the management
of the continuously growing company’s national and international
sales structure.
With Rainer Lorger MSc, DEV Systemtechnik gained a distinguished
electronics industry professional with 30 years’ experience in sales
and management and expert knowledge of the market. He started
his career in 1983 as a sales representative with Hewlett-Packard,
where he made it up to district sales manager. In 1998, Lorger joined
Tektronix, one of the leading electronics test and measurement
businesses, as sales director, Europe, to implement a new European
distribution structure. Before joining DEV Systemtechnik, he served
as a division manager with Hydrotechnik, a medium-sized company
in the field of electronic data acquisition systems.
Together with his team, Lorger has set clear signs in the market to
expand DEV’s ranking as a global supplier of leading RF technology
from the antenna to the receiver.
Rainer Lorger, General Manager Sales & Marketing, DEV Systemtechnik GmbH & Co. KG
The need to extend its IPTV capacity to 250 channels
was one of the reasons for Ooredoo (Qatar Telecom -
Qtel) to build a new satellite downlink facility in its existing
Doha head-end site and antenna farm containing eight
Ku-band and seven C-band antennas. Qtel selected
SVS Telekom of Istanbul, Turkey, as the main contractor.
For the critical signal paths from the antennas to the
receivers, SVS relied upon the products and services of
DEV Systemtechnik, Friedberg, Germany.
Ooredoo (meaning “I Want”) is a brand name introduced by
Qatar Telecom, Q.S.C, to replace the former name (it was
operating as Qtel) on February 2013. Ooredoo (previously
Qatar Telecom) is the exclusive telecommunications
provider in Qatar and is one of the largest public
companies in the country. Since its foundation in 1987,
the company has become a provider of mobile services,
wireless services and wired services, with varying market
share in the domestic and international telecommunication
markets and in business (corporations and individuals)
and residential markets.
Telecom Node for Qatar
Employing about 2000 people, Ooredoo has a presence in 17
countries and is committed to expansion in the Middle East
and North Africa region as well as South East Asia. In total,
Ooredoo provides coverage to a population of over 560 million
people, with 57.5 million consolidated subscribers. Its vision
is to be among the top 20 telecommunications companies in
the world by 2020.
Quality firstFollowing this vision with a rather aggressive expansion
strategy, Ooredoo decided to build a massive new satellite
downlink facility on its existing head-end site in Doha with
the aim of adding capacity for existing and new services,
especially IPTV, and to completely shut down the older part
at a later date. The contract for the project went to SVS
Telekom (www.svstelekom.com.tr), an Istanbul-based
supplier of complete turnkey solutions, engineering designs,
maintenance and consultation on all types of communications
systems for broadcasters, telecom companies, ISPs and
military organisations.
SVS has a long-standing excellent relationship with DEV
Systemtechnik (www.dev-systemtechnik.com). Barbaros
Ozlu, Senior Manager at SVS, commented: ”We enjoy a
very fruitful partnership with DEV, proven in a large number
of successful common projects. We know that DEV will offer
us the best products and services in RF transmission and
distribution, whether coax or glass fiber. Partnering with DEV
minimises our risk as system integrator and main contractor in
the critical front-end of the solution.”
This partnership was challenged during a common visit
in Doha, remembered DEV’s area sales manager, Jörg
Sommerschuh: “Both SVS and DEV were confronted with
massively changed conditions, requiring a complete re-design
of the planned facility.” Learning about DEV’s comprehensive
redundancy philosophy and offering, Ooredoo decided to go
for a system with no single point of failure.
“We are the major player in this region and have to be second
to none regarding quality and availability of our services. So,
only the ultimate in reliability and safety will do,” explained
Gamal Mousa Elzain Mousa, Ooredoo’s assistant manager
Qcv Engineering, Core Network-Nw.
Solution overviewSo, a 15-antenna farm with two N+1 antenna redundancy
blocks took shape, 6+1 for Ku-band and 5+1 for C-band plus
two additional steerable antennas for testing purposes. The
complete system was built to ensure maximum reliability for
ongoing signal transmission. Fig. 1 overleaf depicts the outdoor
part, Fig. 2 (page 70) shows the indoor part of the solution. Fig. 3
(page 71) gives an impression of the Doha antenna farm.
DEV 8602 lightning protection protects the antenna
redundancy equipment and the optical transmission system in
case of lightning. The DEV 1993 antenna redundancy system
ensures ongoing signal transmission in case of failure at a fixed
antenna. It provides DC to the LNB of the motorised antenna,
including bias monitoring, while the DC for the LNBs of the
fixed antennas will be provided by the optical transmitters.
The DEV 7113 optical transmission system, part of DEV’s
Optribution® product family, provides a nearly loss-less signal
transmission over long distances to the technical room and
protects the equipment in the technical room due to galvanic
isolation in case of lightning. With optical transmission in
comparison to copper cables, much better signal quality in
terms of C/N and flatness can be achieved. This ensures
better BER and an increased margin at the IRDs.
The optical transmission system is built with path redundancy
to ensure ongoing signal transmission. The Signal is split to a
main and a slave Optribution Manageable L-band Distribution
Ooredoo (previously Qatar Telecom) is the exclusive telecommunications provider in Qatar and is one of the largest public companies in the country.
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ANGAANGA
Ooredoo decided to build a massive new satellite downlink facility on its existing head-end site in Doha with the aim of adding capacity for existing and new services
System DEV 2190 to distribute the signal depending upon the
numbers of main and slave IRDs. The distribution system is
also redundant to provide ongoing signal transmission. Fig. 4
(page 71) shows rack-mounted DEV 2190s.
Antenna redundancyThe accumulated power of all signals of all polarities of every
antenna is measured and compared against a user-adjustable
threshold. If a signal level under-runs the threshold, the
motorised antenna will be moved to the desired position to
first check the signal level. If this is so, the system switches
over to the redundant antenna. A switch-over is always made
for a complete antenna with all four polarities to allow the
investigation of the fault at the fixed antenna.
The automatic antenna redundancy system provides a web
interface to set up all the satellites, to manually switch over
or to use the motorised antenna as an additional antenna as
well as complete set-up functionality during installation. The
system can be monitored and controlled by an M&C-System
via SNMP. The switching modules are built up with latching
relays and DC pass-through to ensure continued signal
transmission in case of a power-down.
Signal transmission and distributionTo transport the signal to the technical room, it is converted
to the optical domain. This part of the system is also built
redundantly to secure ongoing transmission. The Ku-band part
uses a 12+1, the C-band part features an 8+1 transmission
redundancy. On each electrical/optical converter, the
accumulated signal power is measured and will be checked
against a user-adjustable threshold. If a signal under-runs a
threshold, the system switches over to the redundant path.
If a transmitter or a receiver was the cause of the switch-
over, the faulty one can be exchanged while the system
remains in service (hot swap). To overcome the losses of the
antenna redundancy system and the connection cables, the
optical transmission system provides manual gain control.
The automatic antenna redundancy system provides a web
interface to adjust the gain and thresholds to switch manually
to the redundant path and gives complete set-up functionality
during installation.
The system can be monitored and controlled by an M&C
system via SNMP. To monitor and control antenna redundancy
and the optical transmission system, an Ethernet connection
over fibre optic is required for connection to the technical
room. Therefore, two additional fibres are necessary.
The splitting is 4x16, 4x32, 4x64 or 4x128 depending upon
the number of IRDs. To provide redundancy, the incoming
signal from the optical RX is split into two to feed to the
identical DEV 2190, one main and one slave.
Verifying the solutionThe validity of the concept was proved by two series of tests,
the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and the Site Acceptance
Test (SAT), done for each unit separately.
During the FAT, the insertion loss of all paths of the antenna
redundancy system, the insertion loss of all main paths as well
as the redundant path of the optical transmission system, and
the insertion loss of all paths of the signal distribution system
will be measured and documented. The documentation
consists of a measured curve including marker for minimum
and maximum insertion loss as well as the maximum
steepness in a 36MHz window. Functional tests such as
test of power supply redundancy, power line redundancy,
threshold functionality and manual switching will also be done
during the FAT.
During the SAT, the insertion loss of one main and the
redundant path of the antenna redundancy system, the
insertion loss of one main and the redundant path of the
optical transmission system and the insertion loss of two
paths per matrix switch of the signal distribution system
will be measured and documented. This means noting the
values for minimum and maximum insertion loss as well as
the maximum steepness in a 36MHz window. This can then Fig. 1: Outdoor part of the new Doha head-end
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As a summary of the project, Ooredoo’s Gamal Mousa Elzain
Mousa stated: “We were very pleased by the flexibility and
dedication of DEV, the quality and functionality of the devices
and the excellent price/performance offering. The company
delivered not only state-of-the-art equipment but also
prepared the project for future expansion so we are sure they
can keep pace with our growth.”
Future expansion An expansion of the system to almost 400 TV channels is
currently scheduled for 2014 and Ooredoo has again chosen DEV
Systemtechnik to contribute with upgrades of existing equipment
as well as RF transmission solutions for the full signal chain.
Fig. 2: Indoor part of the new Doha head-end
be compared against the results from the FAT. Functional
tests such as test of power supply redundancy, power line
redundancy, threshold functionality and manual switching will
also be done during the SAT.
Mission accomplishedDEV supported SVS during the tests and trained Ooredoo
staff on DEV equipment in the pre-operational phase. The
start of regular services was in Q1/2012.
Fig. 3: Part of the Doha antenna farm
Fig. 4: Rack-mounted DEV 2190 manageable distribution systems
Fig. 5: Delivery of DEV equipment to Ooredoo
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