Using Video Clip as a part of DAS survey, design or closeout package

A picture is worth a thousand words; and video explains whatever words you didn't understand from those thousand words. Well no need to talk about the power of video - we all know that.

Video can always be a powerful addition to DAS package - whether it's survey, design or engineering, or close-out package. Sometimes you can look at multiple pictures, and still may not be able to figure out how it all comes together. It's not feasible for the DAS Design Engineer to survey all the sites - video can be the 2nd best thing. During my site walks I try to take video which may be hard for me to explain to the engineers. These can be especially effective if you are working on some sort of manufacturing plant.

A few weeks ago when I was working with one of our designer (Mr. Mir) on a large underground parking garage DAS, it was becoming hard to explain just through pictures, how the large I-Beams in the ceilings will have big impact on running the coaxial cable. Floor plans did not show these I-beams, and pictures were not sufficient. After seeing various pictures, when I pulled out the video on my phone the designer immediately understood what I was trying to explain. The short video clip basically brought it all together. You can see the video here:

Discussion on Feedback process for our DAS Design & Engineering Team

If the vision for DAS Design & Engineering team is considered to be the destination, then we have to let people know their "lat and long", guide them to that destination point. The feedback process is that lat and long. This process has to be able to answer 2 questions:

1. Where are you now? (how is the engineer doing, his/her strength and weakness)
2. Where does he need to be in next 30 days? This needs to be specific - What does he need to train on or achieve? When does he need to complete the training (or achieve the goal)? Then make sure that he has the required tools, time, and training to achieve this goal.  

Vision for a DAS Design & Engineering Team

I had the opportunity to fill in the Engineering Manager's position for a few weeks. After engaging with these smart engineering dudes immersed in design rigmarole on a daily basis I started wondering what are our vision for this team and how can we lay out the foundation for that vision. DAS industry is changing fast and to keep up with the pace, vision for the DAS design team needs to morph. So here is my vision for a DAS Design & Engineering Team:

1. A well-oiled machine
(designer knows what to do, how to do it, does it without constant supervision, does it in the most expedited manner, helps each other, great team work in every project, has structured design standard)

2. Versatile
(can do site survey of any size, design any kind of site, can troubleshoot, can integrate and commission DAS in multiple platforms, can develop training materials and train, can design a site in the best possible manner given the information)

3. Knowledgeable
(have good knowledge of multiple technology platforms for iDAS and oDAS, knows optimization techniques, knows all the tools and programs we have access to such as iBWave, Spectrum Analyzer, Power Meter, CW Source, Sweeper, RF Scanners etc.)

In the next post, I will address what steps we are planning to take to get to the vision.

Future Job Posting: DAS Consumer Advocate

This is not a current job posting - but may be a future role. I am writing about a very important role that is currently in demand, but almost non-existent in the market - this is the role of a DAS Consumer Advocate (DCA).

When do we need one?
More organizations (e.g., health-care industries, commercial buildings, public vanues, colleges, universities, etc.) are becoming aware of the need for a DAS inside their buildings. Some of these organizations are willing to consider a DAS for the building as one of the utility features. Since DAS is still in its infancy stage, there are not many people in any organization that understand the different aspects of DAS - legal and contractual aspects, network deployment, operations and maintenance, hand-set provisioning, etc..  Most of the time, someone proactive within the organization starts with Google searches, a few cold calls, start talking to sales departments of the wireless carriers, etc. Despite the tremendous amount of reconnaissance work she puts in, there is still room for confusion and missteps. When a Wireless Carrier identifies this customer to be a potential future customer with hundreds or thousands of devices and multi-year agreement, things can become even more complex. What this customer needs is a vendor & carrier neutral DAS Consumer Advocate (DCA).

Getting Organized: Field Book, USB Stick, Field Laptop

When you are under deadline and trying to finish commissioning a DAS, getting stuck for missing minor information can be very frustrating. Unfortunately, this happens a lot. Working at a DAS site demands you to be very disciplined. Purpose of the field book is to make the lives of technicians and Field Engineers easier by helping them to be organized. Give them information when they need most. Make it very accessible.

There are 3 things you can provide to accomplish this:


1. Field Book:
Obvious choice is to provide a hard-copy of these information in a file folder - or at least that's what we do. However, since folder is a dead-weight, only pack it with documents that will be accessed most frequently. We first compiled a Field Book for our installers and technicians over 5 years ago. We recently upgraded (much needed) that Field Book. It was surprising how much of the old data has changed. Anyway, following are some of the items we included in our Field Book:

• Frequency and Bands used in different markets by carriers
• Username, passwords, URLs or IP addresses of different DAS electronics
• How to change IP Settings in different Windows operating systems? How to get into Device Manager? (Yes, I forget those often!!)
• Quick Installation guides of the most frequently used electronics (Repeaters, DAS Head-end, etc.)
• How to set up a modem connections
• Various Tips and tricks, Debug codes for test phones
• Employee contact information
• Tech Support numbers of different manufacturers  

2. USB Stick (we call it Field Stick :)
Provide a companion USB stick with all Field Books. You can buy 8 GB of flash drive for less than $6.00. 8 GB will have plenty of space to pack all kinds of Spec Sheet for reference, frequently used programs, software and patch programs, and soft copies of all the information mentioned in the hard copy content.

3. Field Laptop:
This is the ideal solution if you can afford it for all of your technicians. A laptop which will be loaded with all the informations mentioned in the Field Book and the Field USB stick.

• Load it up with all frequently used browsers, softwares and programs (for example, MCT program for Mobile Access NMS, Skype, FastStone Capture, etc.). 
• Load up the browser's bookmark panel with frequently used IP Address based URL (e.g. 192.168.1.1, etc.). This can be really cool - because this can save a lot of time in the field.
• If you are using Windows 7 as OS, make sure you have the option to use XP version. Also, add some frequently used serial, USB cables, dongles - the usual suspects.
• If you have a savvy programmer in house, have them make a browser-based Switch Board. Basically, you will have all the links to your files from one place. This keeps things organized and streamlined.
• Make sure that your Field Engineers have the faculty of mind not to fill up the laptop with garbage files programs, malware, etc. It can ruin the whole purpose of getting organized and fast when you need to be.

Lessons Learned: Managing Document Version

Most of the times I end up using Excel to create trackers needed for a project. If more than 1 person are inputting data into this tracker than document version control can become an annoying little problem. You may have updated the tracker this morning, but then, in the afternoon, your team mate updates the tracker you sent out yesterday - not today. This happens a lot, if there is not any simple process set up for managing document version effectively.

We adopted 3 simple rules to maintain one of the major trackers we used in our Big Project:

1. We had a tab within the tracker where the last person updating the spreadsheet put his name and noted the last time he updated the tracker (See Screen shot 1). So for example, according to this screenshot, last update was done by Kevin on 4/13/11 at 2:33 PM.
2. Once he updated the file, he would save the file with a new name by adding his initial at the end and the time. So for example in Screen shot 2, original file name is "Master Progress Tracker", date updated was 4/13/11, and the time was 2:33 PM. That's a good amount of information packed into the name.  
3. We had 3 guys updating the report on a daily basis; so Kevin would update this ONLY in the morning, and Eric would update this ONLY in the afternoon, and then if I had any update I would enter them at night - and that's the protocol we followed most of the time.

Screen shot 1:

Screen shot 2:

These rules may or may not apply to all cases, but if you have a tracker that gets updated multiple times, some sort of ground rules can help maintain the sanity.

A quick note... why not construct the tracker for online update? Well, it was not possible for our particular project; since this was a very fast paced project, and also, we wanted to make the tracker evolve as the project dynamics changed. How about on-line spreadsheet such as Google Docs? This can be a viable solution - however, our stakeholders preferred to receive project updates in an Excel based tracker.

Lessons Learned: Installation progress tracker installers can relate to

Installation Progress Tracker (IPT) for the Big Health Care Project was a critical management tool.

After getting the updates from the AM-PM meeting we would update the tracker. At the beginning, we launched a traditional tracker with traditional milestones - for example, installation started, cable support installed, cable run, antenna installed, etc. But very soon I noticed that the installers were having a hard time to relate to my tracker. They would have to pause and think before they could give the answer. I wanted to have the process more organic and flow little better. I noticed that they always carry the engineering plan and drawing, and refer to milestones by referring to cable, antenna or splitter/coupler ID. So I restructured my tracker, and entered milestones that were closer to the actual work flow (see Screen shot 1). It does not appear to be a big deal right now, but in retrospect, it made a significant change to our reporting mechanism.

Screenshot 1: [click on the image to see a larger version]

So following are some notes about the structure of the tracker:

1. Milestones in this tracker followed the line diagram. So for example, if we had a remote connected (via cable) to a splitter which would be connected (via cable) to an antenna, then remote would be device 1, splitter will be device 2, and then antenna will be device 3. This way we captured the installation status of all the elements in the line drawing. Kevin - my Field Manager would capture these data from AM-PM meeting.
2. Eric (back at the head office) would verify the sweep results submitted by the vendor, determine if the sweep passed, and then entered the swept length.
3. Gray color shading allowed us to quickly determine which elements have not been installed yet.
4. Through formulas embedded in the tracker, all the entered data would be digested into a summary (see Screen shot 2). This summary would quickly show us what percentage of installation has been completed, and even exactly how much cable vendors have used (from sweeps). This is how we could accurately tell that by the end of the Phase 1 of the project we have used exactly 19.2 miles of coaxial cable. This can also be a quick check for how much cable we have given to the vendor, and approximately how much they have installed. 
5. Tabs for this progress tracker was divided by the vendor. So the performance of each vendor would be fed into a summary table (see Screen Shot 3), which showed there actual versus foretasted performance. We presented this data to the vendors as well as the client on our bi-weekly meetings. Vendors made sure they did not get embarrassed in front of the hospital folks (i.e., our vendors regular client). As a result, this project tracker worked as a very effective non-invasive management tool.
6. You know what, our vendors actually loved this tracker - which we found a little surprising, but pleasing nonetheless. 

Screenshot 2: [click on the image to see a larger version]

Screenshot 3: [click on the image to see a larger version]

Lessons Learned: AM-PM meetings. What you can get in 5 minutes?

We had more than 240 of these meetings over the course of the Big Project. Average meeting time was less than 5-6 minutes. Longest meeting was 11 minutes out of all the meetings we hosted.

Since we had 3 vendors working on the hospital campus, there were a lot of activities happening at the same time. AM-PM meetings worked as quick and easy management tool that kept us connected to the vendors, helped us staying on top of the project. Vendor participation was mandatory. I made a big deal if any vendor representative did not show up on these calls.

AM meeting took place at 7 AM, and PM meetings at 4 PM. Venue was a free conference bridge from Freeconferencecall.com. Vendors were supposed to answer the following short questions and drop off the conference bridge:

AM Meeting questions:

1. What are you going to do today?
2. Where will you be working today? (i.e., which building, floors, etc.). Our client - the hospital - insisted that know where everybody is working on any given day. So this was an important question.
3. Do you have all you need for the plan?

Right after the meeting, Kevin updated the project portal so that all the project stake-holders could check them if they wanted.

PM Meeting questions:

1. What were you able to complete today?
2. If there was a gap in planning vs. execution, what was the reason, and what will be the recovery plan?

We would also discuss any upcoming materials shortage every few days. After doing a few, I handed over the meeting to Kevin who did an excellent job in keeping up.

Besides being free, the cool factor about Freeconferencecall.com, is the automated report of the participants, numbers they called from, and how long they stayed, etc. If I found any vendor missing from the call, I would take a snapshot of the report and sent it to the Senior Program Manager of the vendor. I am not a control freak, but disciplined about certain things:) By the way, this was not a new idea... I used it while I was the Project Manager for the T-Mobile UMTS deployment a few years ago.

Interesting DAS related news in media this week

1. SOLiD (a.k.a. ALLIANCE) launches ClearLight ACCESS high-capacity digital distribution solution that delivers 16 independent channels of traffic over a single strand of fiber. If it works well, that will be really cool! Read more: SOLiD Technologies Launches ClearLight ACCESS High-Capacity Digital Distribution Solution
2. SOLiD has a penchant for spelling in a funky interesting way - first the small "i" in the middle of all capital letters, and now all capital letters - ALLIANCE. Read more; SOLiD Technologies Announces ALLIANCE Multi-Carrier DAS Brand Name
3. Covering 250,000 sq. ft. of convention area with DAS - but it got on Wall Street Journal (Market Watch) as Press Release. I'll keep my thoughts to myself... Read more: Little Rock's Statehouse Convention Center Taps Corning MobileAccess for In-Building Wireless
4. I am a Longhorn, and I usually don't find stuff at Aggie Land exciting. But this news was DAS related. AT&T Enhances Mobile Broadband Coverage At Kyle Field.

More in news...
An operator in Norway is deploying CommScope’s ION-M distributed antenna system (DAS) and Node A digital repeater platform for wireless coverage in train tunnels.

TE Connectivity announced FlexWave Prism IRU (Indoor Remote Unit), a new indoor version of its FlexWave Prism DAS. FlexWave Prism IRU uses rack-mountable, indoor remote units and works with coax cable to server antennas. This system is lightweight, has compact Prism Host Unit that supports up to eight services in just three rack units. It also incorporates 100 Mbps in-band Ethernet for carrying surveillance camera traffic, alarming, WiFi access points, or other applications.

Trend: AT&T Coverage Could Improve with Distributed Antenna System; proactively building consensus of residences

Original article: AT&T Coverage Could Improve with Distributed Antenna System

AT&T engineers have done something clever here, and it's just not the DAS I am talking about. On 9/13/11 they showed Palo Alto residents the company's latest plan for improving weak cellphone and broadband coverage throughout the city by building a DAS network. The DAS project was showcased at a community hearing. Residents who attended the event were able to voice their concerns to AT&T experts. But the good side of the article is, AT&T seems to be getting the backing from the residents. As an ex-Site Development project manager, I cannot imagine the trouble we would have to go through if we had to build a cell tower in Palo Alto.

The clever part is developing an awareness of upcoming network. Majority of the time to build a cell tower goes into leasing, and zoning. These awareness building is proactive, and hopefully make any kind of zoning activity much smoother than what it usually takes for a cell tower.

Also, read the comments from residences - Diana Darcy, and Hilary Gans. Comments are positive, and they are already rooting for the DAS network. Creating this kind of positive vibe is also good marketing.

Well done Minh Nguyen and his team! Other carriers should follow this trend.

Lessons Learned: Choosing the "right" vendor from client's toolbox

The Big Hospital uses several unionized cable vendors throughout the campus. We had to use cabling vendors from client's toolbox (i.e., list of preferred vendors). I will be honest... we were not used to interacting with a lot of union vendors, and as a result we were worried. So even before we entered into the bid process we (i.e., our company's principals) met their project managers a few times, visited their offices, and warehouse facilities. We also kept our ears perked during the initial site walks to get a feel for their knowledge and familiarity of the buildings, rules, regulations, etc. Overall, we were satisfied. There are good and bad sides in picking these vendors from client's preferred vendor list.

Good:

1. These guys had been working at the campus for many years. They know the intricate protocols involved with safety, infectious control and access to different buildings. They know shortcuts, and often cases the challenges we would face. This local knowledge is very valuable and would not be available to us if we just waltzed into the project.
2. They knew the campus specific, and even building specific rules that helped us a lot.
3. Another advantage was sort of understood, but unwritten. This is from liability perspective. Since the vendors were suggested to us by the Hospital authority, if there was any problem that came up due to workmanship or vendor’s behavior the hospital team took a shared responsibility. For projects like this where this is a potential minefield of heavy finger pointing, selecting the vendors from client’s tool kit was a good choice.

Bad:

1. Since we were not aware of their work style and workmanship, we were little concerned at the beginning if any of those 3 vendors will become an issue later. Out of the 3 vendors we only had problem with 1 vendor - mainly on communications issue. Crew supervisor would often not show up on the short calls we used to have daily, not return calls, not meeting commitment, etc. We got rid of them the earliest opportunity we had.
2. Training: The cable vendor had the local knowledge of the buildings, and very familiar with the cable routing and supporting portion of the project. But we had to train them in properly connectorizing cable, bend radius, sweeping etc. We brought out installation Supervisor Larry Marker from Houston, and took them through a rigorous hands-on training. We also arranged an Andrew trainer to come to the campus, and offered a 2nd training. The 2nd training worked as a refresher course and solidified the needed expertise for the project.

Our Big Project

For the past year, I had the opportunity to work as a Project Manager for one of the largest DAS deployments in North America. It's a healthcare / hospital facility located in Mid-West with over 8 million square ft of coverage area. We completed the first phase of the project in July (11). This phase included 38 buildings under 1 integrated system. Phase 2 is smaller in scope than the first one, but by the time we are done we have 1000+ antennas in this campus wide DAS. In Phase 1 alone, we have run over 19 miles of coaxial cable, and 60+ miles of fiber. This was a big team effort, and we finished the project before deadline and under budget.

I was intimately involved in the project, not only as a project manager, but also commissioned and integrated the system along with my Field Manager Kevin Wysocki . It was a hell of an experience!

In the next few blog posts, I will capture the lessons I learned from this project.  Due to liability issues, I will probably not get into lessons learned from the equipment side, and so focus more on the management side of the project.

Close-out package for DAS: why do we 'really' need it?

Over last 8 years we have compiled hundreds of closeout package (a.k.a. COP) after completing DAS installations.  Although these packages can be quite extensive based on client’s requirements, there are only a few important items really needed ‘for the long run’. Why only a few - you may ask?

Well, why do we put together a COP anyway?  2 principal reasons:

1. Prove to the client that the installation has been properly completed.

2. Use COP as a reference for future maintenance or troubleshooting activities.

The first reason (i.e. proof of work) loses its value right after invoice is paid. The second reason is ‘for the long run’.

So imagine you get called in for troubleshooting a DAS that was built over 2 years ago. What would you ask for - i.e., what information would add most value in your troubleshooting effort? I am guessing the following:

1. Location, contact and access information: you want to know the address, who to talk to when you get to the building, and how to get to the equipment rooms, antennas, donor antennas etc.

2. System Overview: a short, quick overview of the system - coverage objective of the original system, type of DAS, number of antennas, remotes, hubs etc. Helps you prepare for the troubleshooting exercise.

3. Layout of the DAS: besides the antennas most of the elements of the DAS are hidden. Layouts - block diagrams, line drawings, or as-built with floor-plans - in my opinion, are the most important documents for close-out. Without layouts, hours will be wasted just to figure out heads and tails of the DAS.

With these 3 items you can have a fairly good start. Other value-added information:

4. Post-installation signals under the antennas: quick way to isolate the problem by comparing current RSSI under the antennas vs. when the system was turned up. If RSSI is down under all the antennas, this would be a system wide problem. You may now focus on head-end equipments. If it is under a few clustered antennas - it’s localized.

5. Power output of different devices: this can be helpful when the answer is not obvious and you have your power meter out. Original base-line ERPs help in these scenarios.

6. Donor signal: if the DAS is powered by a BDA, donor signal can become a important factor mainly to assess if the macro RF environment has drastically changed which may be causing this degraded performance of the DAS.

There are other minor information that might be needed based on the site and scenarios (e.g., materials list, people involved in the original project, etc.).  But from value-add perspective, above list is adequate.

Few more items on COP:

Over-hyped COP item: Sweep results. This just adds to the girth of the COP. The older a DAS gets, less value the sweep has; but for some reason sweep results are de facto requirement by a lot of clients. Fiber test results are another one.

Potential to add a lot of value if properly done: a photo or media album… I’ll keep that for another post.
(First posted on 12/30/10)