TeleExcellence Blogs

AI supported prototyping of a Solar Powered Emergency Comms “Base Station” Unit

29/5/2024

AI supported prototyping of a Solar Powered
Emergency Comms HAM Radio “Base Station” Unit
The design of such a very flexible unit does imply multiple technical questions and challenges to be solved.
ChatGPT had been used here to address and retrieve qualified answers for specific technical questions.
I will outline here two examples on technical design topics addressed to ChatGPT and the very useful and time saving responses below.
Images of the prototype outdoor off-grid test setup are included here.

Example a) Portable Emergency Comms Unit – electrical components selection
Example b) Asterisk VoIP PBX - design and setup

a) Portable Emergency Comms Unit – electrical components selection
Electrical design of a portable (HAM Radio) Emergency Comms Unit.
How AI support can be utilized to speed up the technical design by providing qualified answers to key technical questions?
A brief overview of the key elements and key requirements is outlined below to provide an idea on the implied challenges about the systems design and systems interworking.

Portable Emergency Comms “Base Station” Unit – Key elements
- Wireless IP and Comms Radio support
- VoIP / PBX support
- 24/7 Off-Grid battery operation, solar power recharge
- Portable Antenna Mount Pole
- Internet independent IP Comms auto-routing support
- “Hill Top” Auto config network node
- IP Microwave Links / Integrated IP router (OpenWRT) –
- HF/VHF/UHF remote operation IP interworking support
- Outdoor Operation IP64 / IP65 (DIN EN 60529)
Key requirements
- Local and quick relocatable / portable “Hill Top” operation
- Communication protocol standards and services support: IPVPN/L3-VPN, OLSR Meshnet-Routing, VLAN, VoIP, DMR, Web, WLAN/ISM local access
- Off-grid, sustainable operation (no use of fuel supply dependent diesels)
- 230V AC, 24V and 12V DC flexible and parallel power provisioning
- PoE support for Microwave / Routers and VoIP Phones
- Electrical standards compliance (VDE, IEEE, IEC, RFC,…)
- Low RFI for Radio Comms equipment DC and AC power provisioning
- Remote monitoring

Meshnet Auto-Routing IP Communications Unit
- Routing: OLSR and BGP4
- VoIP PBX – Low power multi VoIP PBX support
- Emergency phones support
- Web SDR support for remote access IP traffic load tests
- DMR/YSF/P25/NXDN (digital voice) HotSpot supporting local digital handheld radios WAN access
Solar Charge Control and Power Provisioning Unit
- 230V AC (500/1000W), 24V (50A) and 12V (30A) DC provisioning (Opt. 12V-48V DC)
- Rechargeable Battery support
- Portable Battery Packs (24V or 2 x 12V)
- Portable Solar Panels for battery recharge (2 x 130W)
- Overvoltage / Surge protection (Solar generator input, IP/RF inputs)

Technical question to ChatGPT:
The following design related question did come up on the appropriate selection and use of the appropriate Circuit Breaker components for the DC and AC parts versus the available supply chains.
The usual quick search via Google had not provided clear and trustworthy answers (lots of different “opinions”), thus I did give ChatGPT a try.

Based on the following short question, ChatGPT did provide instantly this very comprehensive answer, as shown in the chat with ChatGPT below.
(I had been then easier afterwords to dig into more details on the topic, related standards and to order the required appropriate components).

ChatGPT design support example:

Example b) Asterisk VoIP PBX – Voice Mail design and setup

Configuration and coding of a Voice Mail server for an Asterisk PBX within the Emergency Comms Base Station.
Key challenges here are to create the configuration for the recent open source Asterisk project for the new pjsip.config based configuration and the relatively complex task to identify the right Voice Mail Server setup, as many, many older and newer and inconsistent setup descriptions are on the web.

ChatGPT did provide instantly an comprehensive answer and a directly working example (copy and paste!), together with the list of the other related configuration files to be adapted in case.

As PBX and SDR Server I had first used an existing MiniPC (Ubuntu) and then replaced it by a higher performing RasberryPI 5 (Debian).
ChatGPT was also used to quickly generate other Asterisk PBX SIP server configurations, e.g. as the commonly used FreePBX software package had not available yet for the Rasberry PI 5 OS.
The VoIP phones were connected via local meshnet routers and Router/Microwave Links and meshnet IP / OLSR to the PBX on the portable "base station".

Conclusion

Even that an AI like ChatGPT does not relieve yourself on utilizing or building up your own expertise, utilizing an AI had saved me again hours, days and weeks of time on the solution design, configuration and test.
Best Regards
Peter

Author

Peter Moessbauer
Management Solutions Consulting
TeleExcellence / Moessbauer-Kupferberg
Key focus and expertise on:
- Network and Services Management
- System, data and radio communications solution design, reviews and test
- Best practices operations
- Solution requirements, analysis, review and optimization support

0 Comments

Quick wins with AI for automating and optimizing your Telco operations - An ad-hoc Telco Ops example with ChatGPT

28/2/2024

Best Practice Example on AIOps on specific Telco AI topics
Address your message with your requirement to ChatGPT at OpenAI
You can do this via the web page: https://chat.openai.com

Ask Message ChatGPT...
“Write a blog about AIOps for telecommunication containing ai on inventory management and ai on event correlation”

ChatGPT ad-hoc created information and topics structuring (it took about 3 Seconds):
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Title: Transforming Telecommunications with AIOps: Revolutionizing Inventory Management and Event Correlation
In the ever-evolving landscape of telecommunications, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Operations (AIOps) has emerged as a game-changer, offering unprecedented efficiency and agility. Two crucial aspects where AIOps is making a significant impact in the telecom sector are inventory management and event correlation.

AIOps in Inventory Management:
Managing the vast and complex inventories of telecommunications networks has traditionally been a daunting task. With the introduction of AIOps, the process has undergone a remarkable transformation.

1. Automated Asset Discovery: AIOps leverages advanced algorithms to automate the discovery and tracking of network assets. This eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing errors and ensuring a real-time and accurate representation of the network inventory.

2. Predictive Maintenance: AI-driven predictive analytics can forecast equipment failures and maintenance needs. This proactive approach minimizes downtime, optimizes resource allocation, and ultimately improves the overall reliability of the telecommunications infrastructure.

3. Capacity Planning: AIOps analyzes historical data and usage patterns to predict future network demands. This enables telecom providers to plan and allocate resources effectively, ensuring that the network can handle increasing traffic without performance degradation.

4. Cost Optimization: By automating inventory management, AIOps helps in optimizing costs related to procurement, maintenance, and resource utilization. This, in turn, contributes to better financial management for telecom companies.

AIOps in Event Correlation:
Telecom networks generate an immense volume of events and alarms daily. Identifying and resolving issues promptly is crucial to maintaining service quality. AIOps comes to the rescue by enhancing event correlation capabilities.

1. Real-time Incident Detection: AIOps platforms continuously monitor network events in real-time. By applying machine learning algorithms, they can quickly identify anomalies and potential issues, enabling telecom operators to proactively address problems before they impact users.

2. Root Cause Analysis: Traditional event correlation often struggles with identifying the root cause of complex issues. AIOps excels in this area by correlating multiple data points, considering historical patterns and dependencies. This accelerates the troubleshooting process and minimizes downtime.

3. Intelligent Automation: AIOps not only identifies issues but can also automate responses to common problems. Routine tasks can be handled without human intervention, allowing IT teams to focus on more complex challenges that require creative problem-solving.

4. Continuous Improvement: The machine learning capabilities of AIOps mean that the system becomes more intelligent over time. It learns from past incidents, refines its algorithms, and adapts to evolving network conditions, leading to continuous improvement in event correlation accuracy.

In conclusion, AIOps is revolutionizing the telecommunications industry by streamlining inventory management and enhancing event correlation capabilities. Telecom providers embracing these AI-driven technologies are poised to gain a competitive edge in terms of efficiency, reliability, and overall customer satisfaction. As the telecom sector continues to evolve, AIOps stands as a powerful ally in navigating the complexities of modern networks.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Brief Requirement
Efficient and revenue optimized Telco operations, demand new approaches to rapidly overcome your short-, mid- and log term challenges in a most efficient way.

What to gain?
Move from former more onsite "cloud based" operations by digital OSS transformation into remote central and distributed OSS cloud operations, saving major effort, time and cost.

Benefits
For myself it does mean to utilize AI at it's best.
I can enforce my long years expertise on Telco OSS implementations and operations by formulizing the right requirements to the AI, rapidly retrieving the key topics and inputs for an faster moving execution plan.
You can ad-hoc refine your requirements list to AI and instantly optimize the results.
ChatGPT does even support scripting and coding, saving major time here as well.

ChatGPT does not leave you off having your own expertise in place, but it can dramatically speed up many of the required processes and in between steps from planning, via deployment, documentation and best practices operation.

And with the team of the right Telco experts in place you can do much more - in less time, shorten the time to market for your services and solutions - and last not least enter the Telco revenue return stream much earlier.

Best Regards
Peter Moessbauer
TeleExcellence Consulting
COO / Moessbauer-Kupferberg GmbH

Quick wins with AI for Telco operations - ChatGPT examples

AI supported prototyping of a Solar Powered Emergency Comms “Base Station” Unit

Author

Quick wins with AI for automating and optimizing your Telco operations - An ad-hoc Telco Ops example with ChatGPT

Author

Archives

Categories