CE 2.1: Long Haul Microwave Backbone Links Project, Telesom, Somalia

This project report details the Long Haul Microwave Backbone Links Project - OptiX RTN 980L, undertaken by Telesom Company in Hargesia, Somalia, from April to August 2017. The project aimed to establish a 12-hop microwave link route with a 5 GB capacity to connect Telesom's headquarters to Djibouti Telecom's DWDM switch. The project involved the installation and configuration of OptiX RTN 980L equipment, including IDU 980L and RF units, and the implementation of Enhanced Physical Link Aggregation (EPLA) using Huawei iManager U2000. The engineer's responsibilities encompassed team leadership, antenna and link installation, network infrastructure setup, system configurations, and ensuring project completion within the given timeframe. The project also involved configuring TDM, Ethernet, and MPLS services, as well as implementing XPIC and SD protection to optimize link capacity and reliability. The engineer successfully configured the microwave links and managed to deploy the traffic of voice and data on the new route.

CE 2.1 Information of Project
Project Name: Long haul Microwave Backbone Links Project - OptiX RTN 980L
Location of the project: Hargesia, Somalia
Project Duration: 4 months (April of 2017 to August of 2017)
Organization: Telesom Company, Hargesia, Somalia
Role and Designation during the time: Transmission Network Project Engineer
CE 2.2 Background of the Organization
Telesom Company is the leading and the largest private telecom and services of
information and communications technology organization that has its headquarters in
Hargesia, Somalia, which was established in 2002.
CE 2.3 Background of the Project
CE 2.3.1 Basic Characteristics of this Project
The microwave backbone link or microwave transmission is the information
transmission with the help of microwave radio waves. These types of links are responsible for
reducing the complexities of data transmission. There had always been an explosive
increment in the overall utilization of microwave spectrum and direct broadcast satellites that
can easily broadcast radio as well as television directly into the houses of the customers. The
microwaves are being widely utilized for point to point communication for the smaller
wavelengths for allowing convenient sized antennas while directing them in the narrower
beams. The Optix RTN 980L is a long haul IP radio transmission system that provides a large

capacity and supports long haul radio transmission. It mainly applies to long haul backbone
networks. It is composed of a powerful TDM/Hybrid/Packet integrated IDU 980L and high
performance RF unit, and scalable branching unit.
This project-work was being carried out by Telesom transmission network team for
the purpose of installation of an extra backbone route and increment the total capacity of the
data and voice services that are provided by the organization. The main objective of the
project work was to build up a microwave link route of twelve hops that could be carried out
with a basic capacity of 5 GB in 1 second. This particular link would even connect the
headquarters of Telesom in Hargesia, Somalia to the respective DWDM switch within the
fiber network of Djibouti Telecom. For making the project work successful, I utilized the
software of Web LCT and did the EPLA or Enhanced Physical Link Aggregation
configurations for proper combination of each and every micro link with the help of Huawei
iManager U2000. I have configured TDM services, native Ethernet services, MPLS tunnels
Ethernet PWE3 services, and the system clock to ensure that clocks of all nodes of the
network are synchronized. Therefore, in this project work, I have built the microwave link
route of 12 hops that could carry out a capacity of 5GB in 1 second.
CE 2.3.2 Developed Objectives for this project
I eventually made sure that the entire work is being executed as per planning and the
work is following the progress in terms of safety and security and is quite efficient and
effective. Therefore, to complete this project work with high priority and efficiency, some of
the most significant objectives are being developed and these are:
 To install an additional backbone route to increase the capacity of voice and data
services provided.

 To build a microwave link route of 12 hops which carries a capacity of up to 5 GB in
1 second.
 To connect the headquarters of Telesom in Hargesia, Somalia to the DWDM switch
in fiber network of Djibouti Telecom.
 To complete EPLA or Enhanced Physical Link Aggregation configurations to
combine all micro links using Huawei iManager U2000.
 To monitor that each and every link is running smoothly and there is no congestion is
the flow of voice and data traffic.
 To configure CES and Ethernet services.
CE 2.3.3 My working area in this project
Being one of the most efficacious telecommunications engineer and an expert in
software tools such as WebLCT and iManager softwares, I have not faced any type of
technical difficulty in carrying out the entire project of Long haul Microwave Backbone
Links Project - OptiX RTN 980L by the transmission network team of Telesom and hence, I
was selected as the core transmission network and project engineer by the team leader. Since
I had been a significant and important member of several distinctive project works of
electronics and telecommunication engineering for several months; thus, when I subsequently
got a specific opportunity to accomplish such kind of popular projects by guiding the entire
team by myself, I eventually ensured that each and every amenity is being undertaken and
considered properly. The transmission network section engineer and the engineering
department manager had ample confidence upon me and provided the fundamental
responsibility of installing the additional backbone route for incrementing capacity of data
and voice services of Telesom.

Engineering Department
Manager
Transmission Network Section Engineer
Transmission Network Engineer/ Project Engineer (Me)
Transmission and Infrastructure Engineer Technicians
CE 2.3.4 Group of people Involved in this Project
Figure 1: Team Members involved in this Project
CE 2.3.5 My major responsibilities and duties in the entire work
I comprised of few of the most significant responsibilities in this project work as the
transmission network and project engineer. My first important responsibility was to lead the
entire team that comprised of the network engineers as well as technicians as I was an
experienced team member in the entire group. I had to install the microwave antennas and
microwave links, so that I was able to complete the installation process without much

complexity. My other distinctive responsibilities majorly included successful installation of
the network energy infrastructure and ensuring proper system configurations. During
completion of the project work, I ensured proper physical link aggregation for perfect
commissioning and maintenance of the microwave links. I also had to check for setting up of
the network management server as well as proper integration of the network traffic into few
distinctive new microwave links. Being the transmission network and project engineer, I
checked for daily meetings to be held to point out the required tasks to be completed and as
soon as each task was being completed, I had to submit progress reports of project work to
the respective section manager or my project leader. I was responsible to ensure that the
project schedule is being maintained properly and so that we have the ability to complete this
project within given deadline. I decided to review each and every task, operated by my entire
project team.
CE 2.4 Distinct Activities in this Work
CE 2.4.1 Comprehending the most Basic Theories Used in this work
I undertook the most basic theories for microwave link and telecommunications. I
understood that the radio access network is one of the major as well as an important part of
mobile telecommunications system. It remains within the devices such as computers so that
the users do not face any issue while connecting to the external world. Since, we had to build
a microwave link route of 12 hops which carries a capacity of up to 5 GB in 1 second, it was
extremely important to focus on the most important factors and connect to the Telesom
headquarter in Hargesia, Somalia with DWDM switch within the fiber network of Djibouti
Telecom. After the successful installation and commissioning of the microware links I had to
deploy the traffic of voice and data on the new route.

Figure 2: Microwave Links
CE 2.4.2 My major Engineering skills or knowledge that are applied in the project
To accomplish this project of microwave link, I have utilized my most significant
expertise of software skills and my networking knowledge. The broad technical skills that I
have gained during my career allowed me to smoothly and proficiently install, configure and
troubleshoot the systems. Furthermore, I have efficiently used all of the hardware and
software resources provided by the equipment vendor such as manuals and guides. As a result
the project execution became successful within the planned period. Since I have both
collaborative and teamwork skills, I did not confront any specific issue regarding
management of team and also work execution.
CE 2.4.3 Execution of the work and Tasks Accomplished
I had to assign and supervise the daily tasks to the members of the team. I supervised
that the entire work of installation is being carried out as per my designed layout.
I have directed mounting dual polarized microwave antennas on the towers by
technicians as each hop contained four antennas with a diameter of 1.8m or 2.4m each. Two
of the antennas on each hop were used as space diversity protection (SD). Next I installed the
IDU 980L which is an indoor unit of the RTN 980L LH systems that receives and
multiplexes services, performs switching and IF processing of services, provides system
control and communication functions. After that, I installed Radio Frequency Units and

Branching Units (BU) on each hop. I have connected the IDU to the RFU through an IF
cable. The RFU is directly mounted on a BU which connects to the antenna through a flexible
waveguide. I have preferred the BUs to connect the SD antennas through elliptical
waveguides to avoid a potential attenuation loss associated with the flexible waveguides.
According to the design the BUs were 10 meters apart from the SD antennas which causes
the flexible waveguide to generate a significant loss. I have also installed radio interface
cards namely ISV3 and ISM6.
I have positioned the service interface boards in the pluggable slots including EG4
(which consists of 4 GE optical/electrical ports), ML1 and MD1 (which support 16 and 32
CES E1, ATM/IMA E1 ports respectively), EX1 (which supports single 10 GE optical port).
I have also inserted the auxiliary cards including the power interface unit and management
ports.
Each hop in this project comprised of 16 IP micro links. These micro links need to be
aggregated to form an Ethernet link with large capacity and improve the reliability of
microwave links. Therefore I configured Enhanced PLA (Physical Link Aggregation), so that
all installed micro links could perform load sharing. Following the manual documents
provided by the equipment vendor, I have performed EPLA configurations using the
iManager 2000 software.
While in the planning stage, the project was designed to utilize 8 frequency channels
for each hop. Since my resources were limited to only 8 frequency channels, Cross
Polarization Interference Cancellation (XPIC) was used together with Co-channel Dual-
polarization (CCDP) to increase twice the wireless link capacity over the same channel. In
order to avoid cross interference of the vertical and horizontal polarizations I have employed
cross polar discrimination (XPD) alignment which effectively reduced interferences.

As the project was planned to be implemented with N+0 Hot Standby SD protection,
to cope with multipath fading, I arranged to configure SD combination technology as RFU
equipment supported it.
To prepare service configurations on the new route, I preferred to deploy the
Multiprotocol Label Switching, MPLS, tunnels on which services are constructed to avoid
complex lookups in the routing table and simplify configuration tasks. To ensure service
availability whenever there is a tunnel fault, I have created APS protection for the MPLS
tunnels.
To configure Ethernet and TDM services on the MPLS tunnels, I engaged a Layer 2
service bearing technology called PWE3 which supports both CES services and Ethernet
services. To configure Ethernet PWE3 services, I first configured Ethernet ports; including
port modes, encapsulation types, maximum frame length, tag attributes, Layer 2 attributes,
port attributes, loopback functions etc. I similarly configured IF-Ethernet ports. Having NE
administrator privilege, I created, with the help of iManager U2000 software and the NMS
Server, PWE3 services on the MPLS tunnels and assigned services types, service ID,
protection types, VLAN IDs, PW IDs, PW attributes, etc. Ethernet services were available
as E-line services carried by PWs. I finally verified normal operation of the created service by
service diagnosis functions available in the iManager 2000. For the creation of CES services,
I configured PDH, SDH, and E1 Card ports. PWE3 services of CES services carried by PWs
were setup by same procedure as Ethernet services carried by PWs.
Finally, I allocated 2Gbits/s of the aggregated link of 5Gbits/s to internet service
provided by the ISP department. I also allocated 2Gbits/s of the link to the 3G and LTE
services. The remaining 1Gbit/s is used for the TDM services, data and signaling.

Fig 3: 16+0 (CCDP, SD) configuration
CE 2.4.4 Identified issue with its solution
2.4.4.1 Issue in this work
The most significant technical difficulty, which I have faced in project was during
allocating a traffic route to the ISP department. The speed that I have considered in the
beginning of the work was 1 GB/sec, which was quite low. Due to such low speed, I was
unable to complete my project perfectly and as a result, the project was getting delayed.
2.4.4.2 Solution to the Identified issue
For the difficulty of allocating a traffic route, I checked for the system once again and
finally found out that I have to increase the speed. Finally, after doubling the speed to 2

GB/sec, I was able to obtain proper results. Moreover, I even allocated 2GB/sec speed for the
services of 3G and 4G.
CE 2.4.5 Unique Plan made to provide innovative or creative work
For accomplishing the project of Long haul Microwave Backbone Links Project-
OptiX RTN 980L, I had to install additional backbone route for incrementing the total
capacity of data and voice services. I decided to work collaboratively with my team.
CE 2.4.6 Work Collaboration
I had provided suggestions to the project team regarding working altogether so that
each of us have the ability of making our project free from mental stress; thus making the
project works extremely operative.
CE 2.5 Overall Reviewing of this Project
CE 2.51 Overviewing of this work
I have learned from this project both technical and managerial skills. I usually
travelled on a regular basis and worked with different teams and departments. I have also
learned a deeper technical knowledge about the microwave OptiX RTN 980L series. This
microwave system uses a recently developed technology known as SD Combination
technology which is better than existing Space Diversity and Frequency Diversity in terms of
efficient resource utilization and capability.
CE 2.5.2 My Major Contributions
I monitored monitor that all the links are running smoothly, all equipment are healthy,
and the flow of voice and data traffic does not get congested regularly. I also prepared daily
reports such links traffic report, bandwidth report, equipment health check report.