Transcript Monitoring the Health and Performance of Base Stations and

MONITORING THE HEALTH AND
PERFORMANCE OF BASE STATIONS
AND THE RF NETWORK
RNI RELEASE 3.1 SP2
© 2013 Sensus. All rights reserved.
C-PAMRAMI-E-0133-01
Module Goals
2
The goal of this module is to:
Introduce the daily tasks used to monitor health
and performance of Base Stations and the Radio
Frequency (RF) network deployed in a FlexNet
system using the RNI reports, charts, and tools.
Review: Verifying FBS and RF Network Operation
Monitoring Base Stations and RF Network
• Are Base Stations collecting meter/SmartPoint data
and forwarding it to the RNI?
• Is the RF Network performing as expected?
• Are there alarms related to data losses, device
function or tampering, and/or communications?
3
FBS
Ops
3
Monitoring Base Stations & the RF Network With the RNI
Monitoring Base Stations and RF Network
Base Station
RF Network
• Status
• Alarms
• Status
• Connectivity
• Alarms
3
FBS
Ops
4
Section One
5
Monitoring FlexNet
Base Stations
Section One Objectives
6
Following this section, you should be able to:
1. Verify a Base Station is powered up and online.
2. View alarms for a selected Base Station.
3. View a summary of alarms received for all
Base Stations in the last 24 hours.
Monitoring Base Station Operations
Monitoring FBS Status
• Performed daily during system installation and
periodically after that
• Problems with Base Station operation cause
problems with meter reading
• Verify:
– Powered and online
– Alarms
– Recent status messages
7
Verifying Base Stations Are Online: Steps 1-2
Monitoring FBS Status
1. Log in to your FlexNet RNI web server with your
username and password
2. Click Diagnostics > FBS Status
8
Verifying Base Stations Are Online: Steps 3-4
Monitoring FBS Status
3. View the Connection and Up Since column values
Connection = OK,
perfect
Connection = x days latent,
indicates the number of
days the Base Station
has been down
Connection = Never Connected,
this Base Station may be in the
installation process
9
Monitoring Base Station Alarms
Monitoring FBS Alarms
•
10
Look for critical alarms, such as Power Fail, for each
tower
Alarms Available on the Tower Status Page
Monitoring FBS Alarms
• Power Fail: Base Station has lost AC power to
outdoor enclosure or power supply has failed on
indoor models
– Use the Connection and Up Since data to determine if
power has been restored
• Battery Low: One or more of the Base Station
batteries has died; Base Station will be disconnected
within 60 seconds
• Voltage Fault: Indication of 48-volt-to-24-volt
converter issue on M400A Base Station
11
Alarms Available on the Tower Status Page (Continued)
Monitoring FBS Alarms
• Over Temp: Base Station is experiencing temperature
of 40°C (104°F) or higher
– View the CPC Status for detailed temperature information
• Under Temp: Base Station is experiencing
temperature 5°C (41°F) or lower
– View the CPC Status for detailed temperature information
• Door Tamper: Door is open on the Base Station unit
Refer to the Base Station
Environmental Alarms
Quick Guide for more
detail about these alarms
12
Viewing Potential CPC Warnings
Monitoring FBS Alarms
• Base Stations contain up to 10 ten channels. Each
channel is monitored for activity, temperature, and
unit door open notifications.
• Click CPC status (Channel Processing Card) to view
Base Station
door is open
Temperatures in:
• Black are normal (≤ 85°F)
• Orange are warm (86-90°F)
• Red are critically hot (≥ 91°F)
13
Viewing Recent Base Station Status Messages
Monitoring FBS Alarms
• Click Recent Status messages tab to view all status
messages received in the last 24 hours
View the date, time, Base Station that
triggered the alarm, the alarm bits, and the
names of alarms
14
Questions
15
Learning Check
16
Question:
1. Which diagnostic report displays Base Station is
connected, current alarms, and alarms over the
last 24 hours?
a) Communication Statistics report
b) Overall System Statistics report
c) FBS Status report
d) Event Log report
Learning Check
17
Question:
2. Which of the following alarms are available
from the FBS Status report Tower Status tab?
a) Power Fail
b) Over Temp
c) Door Tamper
d) All of the above
Section Two
18
Monitoring Base Station
RF Communications
Section Two Objectives
19
Following this section, you should be able to:
1. Determine if the volume of messages handled
by a Base Station is remaining constant over
time.
2. Determine if a Base Station is overloaded or
handling more traffic than is appropriate for
optimum performance.
3. Evaluate potential impact of idle noise in the
system, signal strength, and SNR on RF
communications.
4. View alarms in the Event Log.
Monitoring Base Station RF Communications
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
• Performed daily during system installation and
periodically after that
• Verify:
1. Status
˃ Throughput and load
2. Connectivity/Interference
˃ Signal quality: Idle noise level, Signal strength, Signal-to-Noise
(SNR) ratio
3. Alarms
20
Viewing Message Traffic Status for Base Stations
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
• Click Message Counts
View the totals for
all Base Stations
View the totals for a
single Base Station
21
Look for Consistent Volume of Messages
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
• Click Received Msgs to open a graph of the messages
received over time
22
Viewing Messages Received Over Time
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
3. Change the zoom
level to view the
desired detail
4. Optionally, put
the data you want
to focus on in the
center of the graph
by clicking on the
chart
1. Select the
Base Station(s)
to view
2. Select the
scale—Raw data
gives the most
detail, averages
give smoother lines
• Each time a selection is made, the displayed graph automatically updates
23
Analyzing the Graph
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
1. Look for a relatively flat
or slightly increasing
number of messages during
normal business hours
2. Expect dips in the
early hours of the
morning, but investigate
3. Optionally view
other dips or spikes
data for a specific
physical channel
• Each time a selection is made, the displayed graph automatically updates
24
About Base Station Physical Channel Metrics
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
• Physical channels act like individual pipes for
communication from meters to Base Station
• Allows more efficient processing of critical data
• Each channel is used to receive a different type of
data
• For example:
– ALOHA channels: typically contains meter data
– Poll Response channels: typically shared between Demand
Response and Distribution Automation data
– Priority channels: typically used for alarms or outage data
25
Looking for Overloaded Base Stations: Steps 1-2
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
1. Return to the Message Counts tab
2. Look at the Received Msgs for the individual Base
Stations
26
Looking for Overloaded Base Stations: Step 3
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
3. Compare the percentage of received messages
handled by each Base Station versus all Base
Stations
– Does one Base Station have a much higher load than the
others in your network?
This Base Station
handled 35% of the
load at some point
during the 8 hour
period, but has
leveled out again in
the last hour to 7%
27
Most of these
Base Station
handle 7-13%
of the load,
over an 8
hour period
Verifying Idle Noise in System: Steps 1-2
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
1. Click Diagnostics
2. Select TGB Status
28
Verifying Idle Noise in System: Step 3
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
3. Click Idle Noise
– Signal noise and standard deviation are displayed for the
last hour and the last 30 days for each Base Station
– Signal noise = electrical disturbance to signal that
interferes with transmission or reception of information
– Standard deviation = dispersion of signal frequency from
normal; indicator of signal degradation
29
Verifying Idle Noise in System: Step 4
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
4. Look for noise levels greater
than 12 dB and large standard
deviations, as these Base Stations
are more likely to have
communication issues
Each chart shows the
value for each
physical channel—
four in this example
Hover over bar/channel
to see exact value and
data type
30
Verifying Signal Strength: Steps 1-2
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
1. Click Sensus
2. Click Diagnostics > Overall System Graphs
31
Verifying Signal Strength: Steps 3-4
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
3. Select the Signal Strength Histogram from the
Graph Type drop-down list
4. Select a specific city or Base Station to view from
the For TGB drop-down list
– Default is to show all cities and Base Stations
32
Viewing the Signal Strength Histogram
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
Look for meters with a low signal 3. Click Filters to
strength, as these are more likely open the Filter
Option window
to have noise issues
33
Verifying the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
•
Select the SNR Histogram from the Graph Type
drop-down list
Look for meters with low SNRs, as
these are more likely to have
communication issues
34
Using the Event Log to Monitor Alarms: Steps 1-2
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
1. Click Reports > Event Log
2. Click Filters
35
Using the Event Log to Monitor Alarms: Steps 3-5
Monitoring FBS RF Communications
36
3. Modify
criteria as
needed
4. Select the FBS
Alarms option
5. Click Search
Event Log
4
Alarms displayed are
those described in the
Base Station
Environmental Alarms
Quick Guide
5
3
Questions
37
Learning Check
38
Question:
1. Complete the steps:
To determine if the volume of messages
handled by a Base Station is remaining constant
over time,
a) Click Diagnostics
FBS Status
b) Click ___________
c) Click Message Counts
d) Click Received Msgs to view the graph
Learning Check
39
Question:
2. What parameter is used to determine if a Base
Station is overloaded?
a) Received messages
b) Message count
c) Transmit interval
d) None of the above
Learning Check
Question:
3. Describe the potential impact of idle noise in
the system, signal strength, and SNR on RF
communications.
Both high idle noise and low signal strength
can impact the SNR, making interference more
likely on the RF network.
40
Learning Check
41
Question:
4. Which reports show Base Station alarms?
a) Communications Statistics and Event Log
b) Event Log and Tower Status
c) Tower Status and Communications Statistics
d) None of the above