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Tower Maintenace Note
Tower Maintenace Note
Standard terminology
The oldest form of maintenance is corrective maintenance, also called
reactive maintenance. Corrective maintenance is “carried out after
fault recognition and intended to restore an item into a state in which
it can perform its required function”.
Preventive maintenance is another form of maintenance that is
“carried out in accordance with established intervals of time or
number of units of use but without previous condition investigation.
Interval of times or number of units of use may be established from
knowledge of the failure mechanism of the item”.
Predictive maintenance is defined by the norm EN13306 as “a
condition-based maintenance carried out following a forecast derived
from the analysis and evaluation of the significant parameters of the
degradation of the item”.
Figure 2 – Detailed view of all maintenance types [EN13306]
Predictive maintenance vs preventive
maintenance
Predictive maintenance is a work that is scheduled in the future based
on the analysis of sensor measurements and formulas.
Condition-based maintenance is work that is performed at the exact
moment in which measured parameters reach unacceptable levels.
Preventive maintenance involves inspecting and performing
maintenance on machinery, regardless of whether or not the
equipment was in need of maintenance. This maintenance schedule is
based on either a usage or time trigger. For example, a tower unit is
serviced every year before winter. Also, preventive maintenance does
not demand the condition monitoring component that predictive
maintenance does. By not requiring condition monitoring, a preventive
maintenance program does not involve as much capital investment in
technology and training. Lastly, many preventive maintenance
programs need manual data-gathering and analysis. While preventive
maintenance is determined by using the average life cycle of an asset,
predictive maintenance is identified based on preset and
predetermined conditions of specific pieces of equipment, utilizing
different technologies.
Steps of principal maintenance strategies
The outcome of the different strategies is a reasoned case for why
each of the options of predictive, preventive, or corrective
maintenance should be carried out on the site equipment, and whether
a combination of types is appropriate. Figure 3 gives an overview of
the steps of principal maintenance strategies:
It’s easy to take fast and reliable telecommunications for granted, but these services heavily
depend on physical infrastructure to provide much-needed consistent coverage.
When telecommunication towers fail, the cause is often delayed or neglected maintenance
that allows preventable issues to reach a breaking point. This can lead to significant network
downtime.
For telecom service providers, the revenue loss from downtime can quickly spiral into severe
financial damage. One research institution estimated the average cost of network downtime to
be $500,000 per hour, which has likely increased since that survey was conducted.
According to a recent survey, nearly a third of providers have lost more than a million dollars to
telecom outages.
Let’s walk through all the essentials you need to know to keep your telecom towers properly
maintained, customers happy, and avoid hefty financial losses.
Maximizing uptime isn’t just about making money—when network services go down, essential
utilities and emergency services may also be impacted. Major telecom providers like AT&T
and Verizon have been fined millions of dollars for outages that made it impossible for their
subscribers to connect to 911 call centers.
Outages are becoming more frequent, and equipment failure is one of the most common
causes. As many as 43% of significant network outages are linked to power issues, most of
which are caused by uninterrupted power supply (UPS) units breaking down.
With the latest 5G technology bringing even higher density relay systems, having efficient
monitoring and maintenance solutions in place has never been more important.
Why should regular maintenance be carried out?
Telecommunication towers transmit the signals that make fast, long-distance wireless
communication possible. Regular maintenance of the structures can prevent many problems that
cause essential components to fail.
A recent study found that telecom sites can increase their efficiency by up to 40% by replacing
old and outdated hardware, which would save money and reduce carbon emissions by a
considerable amount.
Maintenance also lengthens the usable lifetime of telecom equipment. Time and the elements can
cause wear and damage to tower structures and the equipment they house, reducing signal
quality and leading to more frequent breakdowns. Issues with battery life and fuel management
can reduce the efficiency of powered components.
By identifying and fixing problems before they lead to equipment failure, site operators can
optimize the energy usage of telecom towers and extend their lifespan.
In general, self-supporting towers require maintenance checks every three years, while towers
supported by guy lines require it every five years.
Telecom towers come in a variety of forms with different maintenance requirements. Here are
the main types to be aware of:
Lattice towers, also known as self-supporting towers, consist of steel grids built on triangular or
square bases. This type of construction is flexible and stable, which allows them to be built up
higher for longer-ranged telecommunications. However, the material and construction
requirements make them more expensive.
Guyed towers are similar to lattice towers, but they are given added support by cables known as
“guy lines,” which are tied into the ground. This provides additional stability in high-wind areas
and allows the tower to extend even higher, but they take up a lot of space on the ground.
Monopole towers are the easiest and cheapest to construct, but their maximum height is much
lower than the other types. They are simple tube-shaped structures with equipment located at the
top.
Camouflage towers are designed to look like trees, water, and other familiar landscape elements.
They are usually based on a monopole-type construction.
Mobile towers or Cell on Wheels are an important part of expanding coverage to remote sites or
compensating for regular tower downtime during heavy maintenance.
1. Communications equipment consists of the mission-critical technology that makes the telecom
tower fulfill its primary function: transmitting data over a distance. It includes antennae,
transceivers, baseband receiver units, radio frequency power amplifiers, combiners, multiplexers,
and control function devices.
2. Energy management assets are the things that provide the power to keep the telecom tower
operational. Usually, the primary power source for a telecom tower is the standard, local electrical
grid.
3. Power modifiers and meters are often used to maintain a consistent and stable energy supply. The
rectifier—which converts the AC power of the grid to the DC power used in the site systems—is
key to managing the tower’s energy efficiency.
Telecom towers also frequently use batteries (lithium-ion or lead-acid), renewable sources (such
as solar panels, wind turbines, or hydrogen cells), and generators to supplement their energy
needs. Generators can help keep remote or inaccessible towers running in adverse conditions, but
keeping them fueled is expensive and inefficient.
Fortunately, there are proven steps site operators can take to reduce downtime:
Following the first two steps will help you use predictive maintenance to your advantage.
Network-wide visibility and clear performance thresholds make it easier to see problems on the
horizon before they bring your systems down.
By engaging in tower maintenance, you can prevent downtime, save money, and extend the
useful life of your assets. The specific tasks required to maintain a tower will vary depending on
the nature of its location, the tower type, and the business objectives of the site operator.
Battery replacement. Batteries are essential for keeping towers up and running during power
grid outages, but old batteries may deliver a suboptimal performance or fail entirely.
Inspection. Towers should be regularly inspected from the ground up to look for signs of damage
or potential safety issues.
Securing fixtures. Antennae, transmission lines, cables, and other hardware can come loose over
time.
Troubleshooting. When you’re experiencing recurring outages, equipment malfunction, energy
inefficiencies, and other performance issues, emergency maintenance may be required to identify
and address the problem.
Generator maintenance. Like batteries, generators can save the day when power failures occur
—but only if they’re in good working condition.
HVAC maintenance. Malfunctioning or inefficient HVAC systems can be a major source of
energy waste.
One of the best ways to perform tower maintenance as efficiently as possible is to use remote
monitoring solutions. Sending on-site crews to towers spread out all over the map is time-
consuming and costly, and many maintenance tasks related to inspection and troubleshooting do
not require any physical action to be taken at the site.
Remote monitoring allows periodic checks to be carried out more frequently, giving you more
chances to catch issues early and engage in affordable and preventive maintenance rather than
expensive repairs. Many remote monitoring solutions can detect issues automatically and send
out real-time alerts.
Critical tips for correct tower maintenance
Some of the most effective maintenance practices can be less than obvious. For example, it’s
easy to put hardware inspections on the back burner when everything is running smoothly, but
issues can develop for a long time before they start to impact performance. By checking on your
hardware features regularly, even when there doesn’t seem to be a problem, you can nip
problems in the bud early on.
It’s also important to replace battery backups regularly and be mindful of unpredictable events
like battery theft. Batteries missing, faulty, or near the end of their useful life can throw
an otherwise solid backup plan into chaos.
Another thing that can help is giving yourself full visibility into the performance of your remote
assets. This may involve a variety of tools and functions, including KPI trackers, real-time alerts,
anti-theft devices for batteries and fuel, and other remote monitoring resources.
By taking advantage of remote monitoring, site operators can evaluate and compare performance
between sites. This can reveal important opportunities for improvement and keep your telecom
towers operating at the highest levels of performance.
The maintenance topics covered include checking batteries, replacing them as needed, and
protecting them from theft; attending to critical inspection issues related to aging hardware and
vehicle damage; troubleshooting recurrent power outages, equipment failure, and energy
inefficiencies; and the ins and outs of maintaining generators and HVAC systems.
The guide concludes with advice on how to use remote monitoring solutions to maximize the
efficiency of your maintenance efforts by establishing performance thresholds, engaging in
predictive maintenance, and providing greater data transparency with respect to energy usage.
This guide discusses the underlying reasons why telecom towers require frequent maintenance,
such as the need to optimize energy usage, the importance of reducing reliance on carbon-
emitting energy resources, the urgency of lowering your energy costs, and the benefits of
keeping equipment operating at satisfactory performance levels for as long as possible.
The six tips, each of which is explained in detail by checking each of your hardware features
regularly, are: updating your backup batteries, obtaining full visibility into your network and
remote assets, implementing remote monitoring solutions, enabling automated real-time alert
systems, and optimizing as many operations as you can.
It discusses the different types of cellular towers and what factors might lead to one type being
chosen for a particular site, weighing the relative costs and benefits of lattice towers, guyed
towers, monopoles, and camouflage. You’ll also find a detailed list of the various hardware
components installed in a cellular tower, including communications equipment, energy assets,
and monitoring systems (such as the sensors that keep an eye on energy use, temperature, and
security).
Regular maintenance is one of the best ways to prevent these issues from occurring, especially
predictive maintenance, which addresses problems before they have a chance to develop fully.
Galooli’s remote monitoring and management solution can be the key that unlocks the visibility
and data you need to optimize your telecom site.
With Galooli, you can see live alerts on the status of your generators, observe your power
consumption spikes in real-time, and keep track of every critical performance metric.