Ceia: 3D Map Generator for Telecom Site Navigation
07/2021 personal project
Keywords:
Smart, indoor construction, designed for telecom site technicians
Collaborated with:
Introduction
Telecom technicians travel to 60-100 different telecom sites a year, and 60% of their work is about maintenance and iteration of existing telecom sites. However, rooftop-built telecom sites pose a challenge to their work: various building structures, and no records of previous work due to the large time span.
Field trip
In this project, we followed a technical team of two technicians and observed them updating a telecom site.
Roof-top telecom site
Unlike outdoor telecom sites, which are easy to see, rooftop telecom sites are much more complex. Because the structure of the house needs to be considered, the routing of cables often varies greatly.
Three key element of the site
Updating and maintenance
Updating and maintenance need to be based on the previous work. Therefore, technicians need to fully understand the site, like where is the cable, where is the terminal, where is the cable node, before their work start.
Searching/understanding the site takes up a large part of their time
Searching for base station
Searching for cable routes
Search for the location of the cable going down to the next floor
Search for the location of the cable going up to the next floor
“Every time we have the same problem. Where are the cables, how they go up to the roof, and everything like that.”
"We spend at least half of our time on telecom sites searching because there is no record."
The reason
A telecom site will only require maintenance after about 3-5 years of construction and will need to be updated after about 5-10 years. Due to the large time span, there is often more than one team working at a telecom site. The likely situation is that Team A does the building, Team B does the maintenance, and Team C does the updating.
Because the construction of telecom site often needs to be adapted to the building conditions, there is no absolute fixed construction method. Technicians can build the site as they wish, which lead to the difficulties in follow-up work for another team.
Technicians’ journey
The Uncertainty of the work
Updating and maintenance need to be based on the previous work. Therefore, technicians need to fully understand the site, like where is the cable, where is the terminal, where is the cable node, before their work start.
Problem identify
So, how might we make technician’s pre-working experience smoother using existing conditions?
Ceia: Designed for telecom site technicians
Ceia is an efficient tool designed for telecom site technicians to help them gather information in roof-built telecom sites. It aims to reduce the time-consuming process of technicians to understand the location and conduct their work smoothly.
Ceia-T
Ceia-T is a signal transmitter that used to connect to the cable. It transmits the first signal.
Ceia-R
Ceia-R is a transmitter and a receiver. It transmits the second signal. It also perform the calculation.
Ceia: Creating a 3D map using cable and signal!
Using the duration of the signal shuttle and the time of arrival at the receiver, Ceia can perform distance calculations. Since the floor height and wall thickness of a building is always within a specific range, Ceia can easily generate a 3D map base on the calculation.
Multi-tasking in just one step:
With Ceia, the technician simply connects Ceia-T to the cable and turns on Ceia-R's "cable search mode" to perform calculations using the time of the signal transmission. This step helps gather most of what the technician needs, including the cable route, cable length, termination location, and the extent of the work.
Strategy: Using the existing condition!
Signal shuttling requires a carrier. The easiest component of a telecom site to locate is the antenna on the roof, which is also connected to cables. Ceia uses the antenna as the starting point for the signal shuttle and generates the 3D map.
Generate 3D map reports that help with work at the telecom site
Ceia gathers information that covers most of what technicians need, including cable route, cable length, termination location, and operating range. Information is presented in the form of a report. It also shows the location of technicians to facilitate their orientation. The report will be uploaded to the cloud at the end of the work.
Extra function: Recording
The recorded work is very important for interfacing with later teams. Therefore, Ceia also added a photo and message record function to improve the documentation of the entire telecom site.
Technicians’ journey with Ceia
In the previous case, the technicians searched by human means. They did it with experience. However, when the house structure was too complex for them to find the clues they needed, they needed to contact the previous technical team to find out what was going on. However, the contact was not always smooth, and when they could not find the clue and could not get in touch, the work could not be carried out. With Ceia, this uncertainty can be avoided, giving technicians a more independent way of working.
The work flow
Complete a telecom site information record with Ceia!
Ceia can complete all records about the telecom site and create 3D maps as well as work records. If needed, Ceia can even record voice messages to facilitate the communication of information by the technical team, even in the case of large time spans.
Why are 3D map reports helpful?
For technicians:
With the map, technicians can accurately locate the cable, base station, and their own location to minimize the time searching and travel distance.
For different technical teams:
The report helps to bridge work with large time spans. Subsequent teams can download and understand telecom sites’ information before entering the telecom site.
For telecom system:
These reports help in the planning and iteration of future telecom site management.
Benefits of using Ceia
With Ceia, technicians can accurately locate, and minimize search time and travel distance.
Process
