BOTSWANA TELECOMUNICATION-MAUN

LIST OF ABBREVIATION AC-Alternating Current DC-Direct Current BTC-Botswana Telecommunication Corporation BPC-Botswana Power Corporation ESN-Electronic Serial Number

UPS- Uninterruptible Power Supply MIN-Mobile Identification Number MSSC-Mobile Services Switching Centre BTS-Base Transceivers Station MSC-Mobile Switch Centre PSTN-Public Switched Telephone Network DISCLAIMER: While utmost care has been taken in the preparation of this research report to provide reliable information, the author shall not be liable for any decision or action taken based on or arising from the use of such information STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY: I Mr ..ID.hereby certify that I am the sole other of this report(ITB200) and that no part of this thesis has been publish or submitted for publication which is required for the successful completion of the bachelor Date of completion of report .Sign. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: My heartfelt and acknowledgments are extended to the following who have made it possible for me to start and even bring into completion my attachment 1. The university of Botswana(faculty of engineering and technology department)for trust me as an attach 2. My parents Letsweletse Dikokawe and Eva Dikokawe for their support and encouragement despite being hundred miles apart 3. Mr Kenanao Molatedi my mentor for the guidance and constant supervision as well providing necessary information and support through the training period 4. Dr Masupi my visiting lecture for his assisatance and motivation 5. Omphithetse Molawa my fellow attach whom we got lost and back on the track together your kindness is much appreciated Finally I humble myself before God who made it possible

SYNOPSIS This paper serves to report or give a feedback of the industrial training for level 200 student. The author was doing their attachment at Maun in BTC in the department of power plant. In this report the author is going to tell the highlights of some lessons and skills gained during the entire eight week period learned. He is going to even explain some of the service provided by the company on how do they work and finally the author will give recommendations or the improvements so as to improve, intensify and enhance the training experience so as to ensure that student benefit maximally on the programme

INTRODUCTION
The industrial training started on the 3rd of June and ended on the 26th of Julys was attached at Botswana telecommunications commonly known as Botswana telecoms or BTC .BTC is a telecommunication and internet service provider in Botswana.BTC is headquartered in Gaborone it provides telecommunication services all over the country and the majority of its services are in capital city Gaborone and the second largest city Francistown currently it has 100000 costumers line in services. From its humble beginnings in 1980 with about 6,500 access lines provided mostly by electro mechanical switches linked by analogue microwave system today it boast more than 144000 access line all connected by digital switches with thousands of kilometres of fibre optic and digital microwave technology.BTC group provides nationally. It has two regional offices four district offices and a number of customer care centre. It has also publishes the Botswana telephone director and provides a countrywide assistance service.BTC group is run y a strategy is sharply focused on leveraging it leadership in a converged fixed mobile network in growth areas :voice data and internet. New services will focus on fixed wireless mobile internet convergence as well s virtual private network and advanced data service .BTC has a telecommunication infrastructure that is one of the most modern in Africa. Its network composed of all digital microwaves and fibre system with digital exchanges at the main centres provides a high quality service. The current network comprises kilometre of
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microwave radio and fibre optic link between 12 main processor each serving a specific area of the country as of 2009 BTC has 905 employees. BACKGROUND I was attached in the department of power plant this is the department that ensures that all the equipments are up and running because most of their equipments use electricity as a source of energy. Apart from ensuring that all the equipments up and running it also ensures that all the equipments receive uninterruptible energy it also corrects all the faults that are detected within the system. This department is the backbone of the corporation without it the corporation will run at loss. When I reported at the work for the first time I discovered that my supervisor went on a trip to carry out some duties in Maun station they had only one technician in power plant so he was covering from makalamabedi up to seronga.Neverthless that was not a guarantee that I should now set and fold my arms just because my supervisor was not there. I got to other departments such as switching, data and transmission so as to learn the basics of what they were doing, In BTC in the technical departments technicians work by detecting and correcting detected faults they dont fix like for example if the generator has got some problems they just replace it with another one instead of fixing it. During the attachment they were very few faults.Neverthless I learnt a lot from the little of what I was exposed to. In the department where I was attached which was Power plant primarily the departments main purpose or aim is to insure that there is continues supply of energy. The major supplier of power to BTC is BPC.When BPC have some faults it has it cut the supply of electricity so as they can correct the detected faults /s without interruption so this affect BTC equipments. In order to avoid this BTC had to come up with backups encase of power cut by BPC.Generatorator, batteries and solar panels are used as backups in various places. Most of their (BTC) equipments are powered by D.C because they are small and therefore to avoid damage.BPC give out AC and then it has to be converted to D.C. In places where there is no electricity the solar as a source of electricity. The following are some of the things we were doing: SOLAR PANEL: To get a supply of electricity for the operation of the BTS in remote areas and in places where electricity is very minimal solar panels are used as a source of
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electricity .The use of solar panels as an alternative energy source is to insure that there is continues supply of electricity to the BTS.Solar panel are capable of supplying electrical energy for 0.115 megawatts almost equivalent to a conventional generator at 20kva.Source of solar energy with solar panel base stations capable of supplying energy to 3 days. This is included with the purpose of charging a spare battery operated at night when there is no sunlight

Figure 2:shows an array of solar panel used to power site Here is a brief discussion of how solar panels work: A solar cell is a device people make takes the energy of sunlight and converts into electricity. In a crystal, the bonds (between silicon atoms) are made of electrons that are shared between all of atoms of the crystal. The light gets absorbed, and one of the electrons that is in one of the bonds get excited up to a higher energy level and can move around more freely than when it was bound. That electron can move around the crystal freely and we can get current. Power System Configuration for towers: Mostly generator used as backups. The load mainly consists of microwave radio equipment and other housekeeping loads such as lighting and air conditioning units. Generally backup power system for interrupted service consist of two main components UPS and electric generator. A single conversion battery ups system is used for DC critical load

figure 3 show the mechanical part of the mobile generator

The UPS is coupled with a generator with using a diesel. Mostly diesel generator need several ground 15 seconds to start and take over the power from net and generator time to start the generator encase of power net outage. The system cover power grid outages or faults .The diesel generator then supplies the whole critical load system and recharges the ups for a period of power outage. The following equipments must be protected from power outage all the time Base Transceivers Station: Needed for direct connection to the users either

handsets(mobile phone).Each BTS covers geographical area cell and connect all users who are located in the cell to the wireless network Base Station Controller :Needed to control several BTS Mobile services switching centre: connects users between wireless wired network

Mostly when there is power outage a generator will be used to power the equipments. The following is the procedure of how it is done The portable electric generator is placed outside then it is filled either with diesel or any suitable fuel. Then the generator cord is plugged into the transfer switch box. The main breaker is switched off and the generator is turned on, after some few minutes the main breaker is switched to the generator setting in the transfer box. The generator will provide alternating current but it has to be changed to Direct current by the process called rectification by the device called rectifier. This is a brief explanation of how rectifiers work

A rectifier is a device for turning alternating current into direct current. Alternating current (AC) flows in both directions, switching back and forth many times every second. Direct current (DC) only flows in one direction. The power lines transport electricity as AC, but most appliances need DC to work. Inside nearly every appliance you own is a rectifier providing DC power.

The AC current first goes into a transformer. A transformer has two coils laid side by side. A moving magnetic field in one coil will induce a current in the other. If the second coil has fewer turns than the first, the device is called a step down transformer--a transformer that decreases the voltage. In a rectifier, the AC power comes in to the first coil, creating a moving magnetic field which induces a current in the second coil. Current comes into the house at 120 volts, but most electrical appliances need about 1/10th that, so usually the transformer steps down the voltage and then we have Diodes they function as one way valves. They will let current flow in one direction virtually unimpeded, but will stop it when it tries to flow the other way. In a rectifier, diodes are used to separate the current into two parts. When the AC current is flowing in its negative phase, it is shunted down the negative wire and the positive wire is closed. When the current is flowing in its positive phase, it is shunted down a positive wire and the negative wire is closed. At this point, it has been converted from AC to DC Smoothing out the Current AC current looks like a sine wave, flowing up and down from negative to positive. The diodes in a rectifier separate the current into positive and negative, but they do not remove the waviness. Many circuits require smooth, continuous DC current to work properly. One way to smooth out the current is to add in a capacitor. A capacitor acts like a miniature battery. When the current surges, the capacitor absorbs some of it, levelling off the peak. When the current drops again, the capacitor releases a bit of extra electricity, eliminating the trough in the wave. Really good power supplies have complicated power conditioning systems to get very consistent power, but for many devices a simple capacitor does the job adequately. THE INTERNET: One of the services provided by BTC is the internet. Basically internet is a network of interlinked computers networking worldwide which is accessible to the general public. These interconnected computers work by transmitting data through a special type of packet switching which is known as the IP or internet protocol. Basically

BTC connects internet to its customers who have landline in their homes and this is made possible by the

Figure 3 shows a wireless modem. modem. The modem a modulator demodulator is used to send digital data over a phone line. The sending modem modulates the data into signal that is compatible with the phone line and the receiving modem demodulates the signal into digital data. Wireless modem convert digital data into radio signals and back.

Figure 2: shows the physical connection of the modem BASICS OF TELECOMMUNICATION: telecommunication as one of the services provided by BTC and here are the basics of the equipments involved and how they work When a mobile call is made the mobile phone establishes a connection to the available service providers network. When the handset is switched on it scans the group of forward control channels to determine the strongest one. Then it keeps on monitoring the same channels untill the signal level drops below a minimum level after which it again starts to scan. Every mobile phone repeats this process as long as it is kept switched on. The signal level of the current channel which the phone is locked to will be displayed on the handset.

When a user dials a number to make a call, a call initiation request is sent on the reverse
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control channel; with the request the mobile phone sends its mobile identification number (MIN), Electronic Serial Number (ESN) and the dialled telephone number. The BTS receives the data and send it to the mobile switch centre (MSC).The MSC validates the request by checking the MIN with record on its database. A connection to the called party is made if it valid through public switched telephone network (PSTN).Then the MSC requests the base station to move the mobile phone to an unused voice channel so that the conversation can begin. When a call is in progress, the MSC adjust the power transmitted by the mobile phone as it moves in and out of the coverage area of each base station. When a mobile phone with a call in progress moves from one base station to another, the process is called handoff. When a call is made from a land to a mobile phone a call is made through PTSN to a mobile request will be transferred to the MSC.The MSC will dispatch the request to all the base station .Then the MIN which is the subscriber number is transmitted as a message throughout all the base stations in the system.

Figure 4 shows the shelter that houses the BTS in remote areas The mobile then identifies the message and respond to it. The base station then relays the acknowdgements to the MSC Then the MSC requests the base station to move the phone to an unused voice channel. During this process, a control signal is also send which triggers the mobile phone to start ringing. The MSC connects the call to the PSTN and the conversation can begin as soon as the mobile user accepts the call.

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figure 7 shows inside the BTS When a call is made and there are no free voice channels available then you will probably hear a message that the network is busy. This happens when a large numbers of calls are made from within the coverage area of a single base station. Comments and recommendations: The author has learnt a lot during the entire attachment period even though there were some challenges and problems. The following are some things the author feel should be improved so as to improve the attachment experience and to enhance learning The school should make an arrangements for student to take trips while on attachment so that they can more. Supervisors should not only visit student once but twice to intensify the work done and also to motivates the student CONCLUSION From the author s point of view the company is highly recommended for electrical engineers trainee to do their training here especially those who want to do telecommunication as it is a good place to grow professionally. REFERENCES Internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botswana_Telecommunications_Corporation date of extraction;28-06-2013 http://www.btc.bw/ date of extraction:05-07-2013

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