Mobile base station at KAMAZ

A mobile base station is an almost ordinary cell mounted on a car chassis and equipped with a bunch of devices to ensure autonomy. Beeline has several such mobile stations on platforms of various carrying capacities. They are actively used to create a coating or seal it where it is desperately needed.

What's inside the car?

• Transceivers (at 900 MHz, 1800 MHz or 2100 MHz). Simply put, a subscriber macro cell .
• Radio-relay or satellite equipment for communication with the Beeline main infrastructure.
• A telescopic hydraulic or collapsible antenna mount on which transceiver antennas are installed.
• A diesel generator that allows you to work autonomously. Whenever possible, the station connects to the local power grid, when not, it works autonomously. Four days for a small station (usually more) and 12 days for KAMAZ in the "autonomous region" is the norm.
• Air conditioners and air heating devices to ensure normal thermal conditions for equipment and personnel (because mobile stations can operate in severe frost and heat).

Are there any more such things?

This is the first domestic truly mobile solution. Yes, before it the equipment was installed on machines, but it had a number of features, for example, a very long deployment on site. Our, thanks to the hydraulic support for the antenna, unfolds in 15 minutes anywhere (large stations unfold in 40-50 minutes). Now Beeline has several mobile base stations: in Moscow at KAMAZ, in the regions - on trailers.

Why is MBS needed?

Firstly , to locally increase the capacity of the cellular network. Usually - to mass events where you need to improve the service. In this scenario, the station is able to “distribute” around itself as usual voice coverage, as well as provide 3G Internet and other services.
Examples: MAKS air show near Moscow, the UEFA Champions League Final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow in May 2008, annual Victory Day, City Day celebrations, annual New Year's mass celebrations in recreation parks and city squares.

Secondly , the machine can work where there is no cellular coverage and is not planned, and far enough from the operator’s infrastructure and habitable places in general.
For example, at the site of the tragedy associated with the flooding of the motor ship "Bulgaria" in the water area of ​​the Kuibyshev reservoir in the Republic of Tatarstan, on the Sabantui in Bashkortostan.

And in more detail?

July 6-7, 2011 In the Uchalinsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan, a spring festival (Sabantuy) takes place in the village of Kalkanovo on the shore of Lake Kalkan. Cellular communication on the territory of the celebration is absent from all operators. The population of the village is 395 people, the estimated number of people attending the holiday is 2,000 people. Two weeks before the holiday, approvals begin, then the station leaves for the place and, within an hour, unfolds and switches to a fully functional mode. The crew is two people: a driver-mechanic and an engineer. They live directly in the car, where there are two berths. They eat food and dry rations "from home", bought on a "business trip", plus they have the means to buy hot food directly at the holiday. The phase centers of the antennas are located at an altitude of 10-15 meters above the ground,no lead underpants needed. During the BS operating time, the total traffic amounted to 385.14 Erlang, and there were congestion a couple of times (1 Erlang is one hour of a subscriber’s conversation in the network, taking into account the time of dialing, that is, in total, subscribers talked for about 16 days in 2 days: of course, this the distribution was uneven).

How many pieces of paper do you need to sign in order to leave the garage?

Before turning on the MBS equipment on the air, it is necessary to calculate and then agree on the installation location, standard, range, number of required radio frequencies, antenna height with a regulator, since base stations of other operators and equipment of other departments can work at the epicenter of events. Then you need to enter data into the BS equipment and configure it so that the work of the MBS should be integrated into the existing operator network. Regular use involves a couple of weeks for departure, reconnaissance and all approvals. Emergency cases - about two to three days. Theoretically, this process can be forced up to 1 day. The “instant” installation of a base station in a new place is technologically possible, but illegal, since a frequency permit is required: if done without it, this threatens to revoke the license.

What about specific TX?

For example, we have KamAZ-53229, where in the isothermal box body there is an antenna with a support 17 meters high. The chassis is designed to move only on hard surfaces (roads, fields, etc.), it is deployed without stretch marks. There are 3 sector antennas 1.3 meters high on the support, a RRS antenna with a diameter of 0.6 meters. The support is equipped with a remote adjustment device for the PPC antenna; an additional pipe rack for mounting the PPC antenna is installed on the roof of the body. The isothermal body has three compartments - the BS hardware compartment, the antenna support equipment compartment and the diesel-electric generator compartment. In the hardware compartment of the body there are 8 racks of technological equipment up to 1.9 m high (BS racks, EPU with batteries, transmission systems). Compartment height
hardware BS 2.5 meters. It includes a transportable satellite communications earth station (PZSSS) with an antenna diameter of 1.2 meters and an automatic guidance system for a satellite repeater. MSSSS provides binding MBS to the switching network through four digital streams 2 Mb / s.

The hardware compartment of the body is equipped with air conditioning, heating and ventilation. It has an autonomous power supply system - a 16 kW diesel-electric generator with fuel tanks. Battery life in normal mode for at least 12 days. Plus 140 meters cables for connecting MBS to a three-phase external network
power supply. The hardware BS is equipped with the operator’s workstation, as well as two berths (in the room of the hardware BS and the car cabin). MBS crew - 2 people. It is possible to use atmospheric lasers to connect, but they are not installed in the current configuration. The station is adapted for Russian conditions: it is resistant to heat, cold, bears and vandals.

Does the network capacity increase when deploying a nearby mobile BS?

In the general case, yes, it is growing. But, for example, if you deploy a BS in an area where coverage has already reached a theoretical maximum in frequency distribution (the center of a metropolis, for example), only the signal level will improve, but not the number of callers simultaneously.

What's next?

Most likely, it will soon be possible to achieve greater autonomy of the base station, in particular, due to capacious batteries or alternative energy (we have stationary base stations with solar batteries , for example). The second point is a faster and denser connection with the main infrastructure. Now we have already used a mobile base station on a trailer to provide video communications for newlyweds with the registry office at a distance of 170 kilometers (this was the first wedding online in Russia) and to allow knights from the reconstruction of the Borodino battle to call their friends and parents. In the future, apparently, there will be many more such situations.