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"Ocnc{ukc
GSM Remote Sensing for Copper Cable Transmission
Line Monitoring System Using FPGA
Mohd Natashah Norizan, Roslin Jamaludin, Ili
Salwani Mohamad, Tan Chiang Li
School of Microelectronic Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Perlis
Pauh Putra Main Campus, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
roslin@unimap.edu.my, mohdnatashah@unimap.edu.my,
ilisalwani@unimap.edu.my, macesly@yahoo.com
Abstract—Copper cable is used as a medium of
communication whether for a fixed telephone line or internet
service. Currently, the price of copper increases due to a high
demand of global trading market. As a consequence, telephone
cable stealing activities in Malaysia are also increased due to
the copper used inside the telephone cable. Therefore, this
project presents the works in designing and developing an
innovative apparatus that will be able to help the local
telecommunication company to monitor and detect not only the
area or location of loss signal occurred but also the distance of
the telephone cable being cut. This system applies the FPGA-
based monitoring system using GSM (Global System for
Mobile) network. 555 timer is used as a capacitance detector to
detect the frequency value of the copper cable. The Altera
DE2-70 board in the other hand is used to calculate the cable
distance, which influenced by the cable frequency. After
detecting an occurrence of a cable has been cut, this prototype
will automatically activate an alarm signal and send an instant
message (SMS) to alert the person in charge indicating the area
and distance of the cable that has been cut.
Keywords—anti-theft, FPGA, copper cable, GSM, 555 timer,
reflectometer
I. INTRODUCTION
In Malaysia, copper cable is widely employed as a
medium of communication network to link people around
the world, whether as a secured telephone line or internet
service. In order to offer a good communication service, the
telecommunication provider must guarantee that the
connectivity in all premises is in a safe condition without any
problem. Currently, copper cables owned by
telecommunication providers face the problem of copper
cable stealing activity. Any faulty occurred on transmission
lines may disrupt both telephone and internet service. Many
feedbacks and complaints received from the end users that
there is no service at their premises. Dissatisfactions among
customers arise when their telephone and internet service
disrupted which caused by faulty occurred at the
transmission lines.
Cable theft cases have increased year by year in the
country which leads to the high price of copper cables. The
;9:/3/69;;/8325/21361&53022"Æ4236"KGGG
Mohd Shamian Zainal
Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Electrical
and Electronics Engineering
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Malaysia
shamian@uthm.edu.my
main reason of copper cables has been spotted for the
stealing activity is because of the material quality and the
high demand in the market. In 2011, Telekom Malaysia
(TM) has reported a total of 11,539 cases of cable theft and
6,759 cable theft cases were reported in the first eight
months of 2012. In addition, the TM Chief Executive
Officer, Datuk Seri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa claimed that
the cable theft not only occurred outside the city but the
cases also increased in the city due to cable theft occurrence
in the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in Cyberjaya
increased by 71 cases compared to 52 cases in 2011, while
cases increased by 58 cases from 30 cases in Kuala Lumpur
[1].
As to solve this problem, a remote sensing monitoring
system can be created to monitor the stealing activities of the
copper cable. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based
monitoring system for a copper cable transmission line using
Global System for Mobile (GSM) network is essential as it
offers a low cost, powerful and user friendly way of 24 hours
real-time remote monitoring system. The control system is
using Verilog Hardware Description Language which is
being implemented in FPGA board. The monitoring system
will be connected to the Main Distribution Board (MDF) and
is designed to monitor and detect the copper cable location of
loss signal at the transmission line. A reflectometer or a
sensing circuit is used to detect the open circuit along the
copper cable.
In order to produce a practical and low cost system, this
project is using low cost materials, components and
processing fee for commercialization. Besides, this system is
equipped with fast reporting response using Global System
Mobile (GSM) modem. When the copper cable is in the
failing state, an error signal of 555 timer from reflectometer
circuit will be sent to the Altera track DE2-70 board. Once
the Altera track received the signal, it will automatically
display the distance and area of the cable cut location on the
LCD screen and at the same time will send an alert instant
message through GSM wireless network to the user or
security mobile phone.
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II. METHODOLOGY
A. GSM Remote Sensing for Transmission Line Monitoring
System Using FPGA
The development of anti-cable theft monitoring system
will be described in this section. Figure 1 shows the block
diagram of the system. It involves FPGA Altera DE2-70
Board as the main controller which receives the input from
the sensing circuit once detected the cut from the twisted pair
cable and produce the location display of cable cut at 7-
segment and LCD display besides of sending the instant
message to the user mobile phone through the GSM module.
Fig. 1. Architecture diagram of GSM remote sensing monitoring system.
B. Twisted Pair Copper Cable
Twisted cable pair is used as an input to the reflectometer
sensing circuit. When the twisted pair copper cable is in open
circuit after being cut by the theft, the capacitance or ESD
effect will occur [2]. Figure 2 shows the theory the copper
cable relating the cable length to the capacitance effect. The
capacitance value of a copper cable is proportional to the
length of cable where the capacitance value increase as the
length of the cable increases vice versa. Based on equation
1, equation 2 is formed to calculate the distance or length of
the copper cable which has been cut from the origin point.
Fig. 2. Relation between capacitance values with the cable length.
Cut Cable Length, L2 Original Cable Frequency, f1 (1)
=
Original Cable Length, L1 Cut Cable Frequency, f 2
Cut Cable Length, L2 =
Original Cable Frequency, f1 (2)
× Original Cable Length, L1
Cut Cable Frequency, f 2
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C. Reflectometer/Sensing Circuit
The reflectometer sensing circuit will act as a sensor to
detect the capacitance value of the copper cable and convert
it into an equivalent frequency value and send it as an input
to the FPGA board. The output of the reflectometer is an
input to the FPGA board (Altera DE2-70), connected via
EXT_CLK input. Figure 3 shows a 555 timer set up as an
astable multivibrator to form a reflectometer circuit to sense
and locate faults on the open-circuited wire. Equation 3
determines the frequency of the voltage output. By changing
the resistor value of the RA or RB, the reflectometer will be
able to detect the open circuit of twisted pair cable for a
certain range of distance.
1.443 (3)
f (Hz ) =
(RA + 2RB )C
Fig. 3. Reflectometer circuit for open-circuited wire detection.
D. System Processor
The Altera DE2-70 FPGA project development board is
used as a processor to convert the equivalent frequency value
received from the reflectometer sensing circuit into an
equivalent distance or length of copper cable. The system
works as a remote monitoring for the copper cable of the
transmission line. The system will continuously monitor and
send an SMS message to a user’s mobile phone to update the
status of copper cable. Figure 4 shows the Altera DE2-70
board.
Fig. 4. Altera DE2-70 development board.
 4236"4pf"Kpvgtpcvkqpcn"Eqphgtgpeg"qp"Gngevtqpke"Fgukip"*KEGF+."Cwiwuv"3;/43."4236."Rgpcpi."Ocnc{ukc

E. FPGA System Development

The main function of the system is to use the 555 timer to
determine open circuit’s capacitance value along the
telephone line by sending current through the twisted pair
cable and 555 timer’s frequency output is depends on the
capacitance value [2]. Next, the FPGA (Altera DE2-70) will
be used as a frequency counter and convert the frequency
into a distance of the open circuit's location. Lastly, the
FPGA board will compile the information and send an
instant message or alert through GSM wireless network to
the user mobile phone.

F. Hardware Development
This is the assembly process for the system hardware
component, such as the GSM modem, FPGA board and 555
timer circuits. This process has been included in the
procedure of circuit design, construct a circuit board, testing
the circuit in real time and testing the circuit in electronic
software simulation. Based on Figure 5, the coaxial cable
(RG-58/U) in the original reflectometer circuit is replaced by
the twisted pair copper cable as it is the main purpose of this
project. The output of the reflectometer will be connected to
FPGA board.

Fig. 5. Hardware development.

G. Software Development
Figure 6 shows the Altera DE2-70 programming process
flow. The program is built using Quartus II software. The
programming source code used is Verilog language. The first
stage starts with building a program for frequency counter.
This program is used to detect and process the frequency
received at its EXT_CLK input and convert it into the
equivalent length using the formula in Equation 2. At the Fig. 6. Software development process flow.
same time, this program will display the information
regarding the distance, the area and the frequency value on
LCD panel and 7-segment display. Next, a program through III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Nios II software using C language is built to control the Testing and analysis are important in completing this
GSM module. This program is used to send SMS to the user project to achieve the objective. The comparison analysis
mobile phone through RS232 serial port. Final stage includes between software simulation and hardware testing data is
the configuration of all input and output pins involved in the taken into account in determining the overall system
Altera DE2-70 board before the program can be downloaded performance. Quartus II and Nios II software is used to build
and run from Quartus II and Nios II software. the program for the project. The hardware part consists of
cable detection circuit using a 555 timer, Altera DE2-70
board and GSM module. Calculation and calibration in the
circuit must be done to improve the system efficiency. The
result will be compared with the theoretical calculation by
finding the error percentage if there is any difference

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between real measurement and the theory calculation. From TABLE I. ERROR PERCENTAGES OF THE COPPER CABLE FREQUENCY
AND LENGTH.
the measurement and testing experiment that have been
done, the result can be divided into three parts. The first and Input Output (Display) Error
second parts of the experiment is taken from the 555 timer of Copper Cable Frequency Copper Cable Length Percentage
the reflectometer circuit by real time (practical) and (meter) (Hz) (meter) (meter) (%)
simulation measurement to get the value of the frequency
generated by the reflectometer circuit. Third part refers to the 2 58,260 2 ±0 0.000
experiment which is conducted to test the functionality of the 4 29,312 5 ±1 3.571
GSM program as it also will summarize the performance of 6 23,989 6 ±0 0.000
the overall system.
8 18,629 8 ±0 0.000

A. Practical Results 10 15,725 10 ±0 0.000

The first part of the practical experiment is done to 12 13,564 12 ±0 0.000

measure the frequency generated by the reflectometer circuit.
By taking 12 meter cable as a reference, the output of the
reflectometer generated a frequency based on the length of
the cable which is connected to the oscilloscope input
(channel) to view the reading. Figure 7 shows the
experimental result viewed on the oscilloscope for 12 meter
copper cable. Based on Figure 7, the measured frequency of
12 meter cable is 13.84 kHz (13,840 Hz). This value is then
will be used as part of the Frequency Counter.
Based on the results in Table 1, the maximum error
percentages recorded of the copper cable length converted
from 2 meters to 12 meters is about ±1 meter. On the
experimental measurement, the maximum length tested is 12
meters. From calculation, the maximum length to be tested
can be more than 1 kilometre but the error percentage is
undefined. It is hard to do an experimental measurement of
the twisted pair copper cable with long distance due to the
measurement value will not be accurate if the copper cable
bent or roll together. The copper cable cannot be rolled
together during measurement due to the capacitance value
within the copper cable will not be accurate.

B. Simulation Results
The simulation experiment is done by simulating the
reflectometer circuit in the NI Multisim simulator. The
measurement is taken for different length of copper cable. In
this mode, note that the length is represented by the
capacitance value. By taking the frequency value of 12 meter
Fig. 7. Oscilloscope view of the reflectometer output for 12 meter copper
cable measured in real time measurement which is 13,840
cable.
Hz, this value is converted into an equivalent capacitance
Next part of the practical experiment testing is measuring value using Equation 3. This capacitance value is then used
the frequency generated by the reflectometer circuit by to convert into another capacitance value for different cable
running the Frequency Counter program on the Altera DE2- length by using cable length to the capacitance ratio method.
70 board. This measurement is taken for a different length of Table 2 shows the converted capacitance value for different
twisted pair copper cable. The frequency generated is cable lengths.
connected to EXT_CLK at Altera DE2-70 board and the
frequency value is viewed on 7-segment display once the TABLE II. LENGTH TO CAPACITANCE VALUE CONVERSION.
program is run. Figure 8 shows one of the measured value
Cable Length (meter) Equivalent Capacitance Value (pF)
and result that display on the 7-segment and LCD on the
Altera DE2-70 board while Table 1 shows the experimental 12 621
result of different cable length tested using Frequency 10 518
Counter program on Altera DE2-70 board. The data 8 414
collected is recorded and compared for error percentage
determination. 6 311
4 207
2 104

The capacitance value converted in Table 2 is then used

to simulate the frequency converted for different cable length
represented by the capacitance value. Figure 9 shows the
simulated reflectometer circuit in the NI Multisim simulator.
Fig. 8. Results on 7-segment display and LCD. The circuit is simulated and the frequency generated is

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viewed on the oscilloscope generator. Figure 10 shows part graph shows that the pattern of the frequency generated
of the simulation result viewed on the oscilloscope generator. either using simulation or running from DE2-70 board is in
From the output signal observed, the time interval (T2– T1) the same pattern.
between one complete cycles of the signal is taken and this
value is used to calculate the equivalent frequency value. The
overall simulation result is collected and recorded in Table 3.
555_TIMER_RATED XSC1
VCC
9V Ext Trig
+
_
A B
R1 + _ + _
56k VCC
RST OUT
DIS
R3
THR
R2 U1 360
TRI
56k
CON

GND LED1

C1
0.1uF
C2 Fig. 11. Frequency comparison between Altera DE2-70 and simulation
result.
621pF

Fig. 9. Simulation circuit for Reflectometer circuit in NI Multisim. C. Final Result

The overall system developed is combined and tested for
overall system performance. When the reflectometer detects
an open cable at one end, it will generate frequency and send
it to the Altera DE2-70 board. The DE2-70 board will run
the Frequency Counter program to convert the frequency
into equivalent cable length or distance and at the same time,
the DE2-70 board will also run the GSM program to send the
message or alert data to the user mobile phone. At the end,
the system is able to send a data to the user mobile phone
using the wireless GSM network. Figure 12 shows the data
has been sent to receiver’s mobile phone by using GSM
module.

Fig. 10. Output signal viewed using NI Multisim simulator.

TABLE III. SIMULATION RESULT.

Capacitance, Equivalent Length Period, T Frequency, f

C (pF) (meter) (μs) (Hz)

621 12 73.106 13,679

518 10 61.364 16,296
414 8 48.485 20,625
311 6 36.364 27,500 Fig. 12. The SMS received at the user mobile phone.
207 4 24.242 41,251
104 2 13.258 75,426 IV. CONCLUSION
This research “GSM Remote Sensing for Copper Cable
Transmission Line Monitoring System Using FPGA” is
By comparing the result in Table 3 (simulation result) designed to help the telecommunication company to detect
and result in Table 1 (real time measurement), the difference the area of loss signal and at the same time to overcome the
between the frequency values can be compared. Figure 11 copper cable stealing activities problem. When there is
shows the comparison between the frequency generated by damage at the transmission line, the person in charge in the
the Altera DE2-70 board and NI Multisim simulator. The control room will be informed directly and continuously. It

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