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YY_9843
join:2013-06-14

YY_9843

Member

Identification

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Hello all,

I am not a very technical person, but I thought you all help me identify these markings near the bottom of a Verizon 4G cell station in Virginia. Can any of you tell me what these colors on the cables represents?

Thanks!

Killa200
Premium Member
join:2005-12-02
TN

Killa200

Premium Member

Identification bands. They are staggered at multiple points on the cable, as well as on the cable on the inside of the hut so that they can identify which cables they are working on without needing ground help, or worse, having to come back down.

They offer no indication of what is going on with the cable itself, just on where the cable is on the tower, and perhaps if procedural, what order the cables went on the tower.
TheMG
Premium Member
join:2007-09-04
Canada
MikroTik RB450G
Cisco DPC3008
Cisco SPA112

TheMG to YY_9843

Premium Member

to YY_9843
Yup, just cable marking. We do the same thing where I work too. I have all sorts of colored electrical tape and colored heat shrink tubing for that purpose.

Whether or not there's an actual color scheme/standard or any significance to the choice of colors, that depends entirely on the company's procedures that owns the cables.
Hahausuck
Premium Member
join:2003-12-14

2 edits

Hahausuck to YY_9843

Premium Member

to YY_9843
They identify which cable is which.... Like Killa said. So they don't confuse one for another.

Furthermore-

The color and number of stripes also indicates which antenna the cable goes to, and it looks like 12 cables total so I am thinking there are 6 antennas per sector, two cables per antenna. The sectors are broken into alpha, beta, and gamma. The three sectors are about 120 degrees each in coverage if you wanted to visualize it. There is more to it than this in terms of how the antenna covers the sector, it's quite complex. Just picture it like a pie broken into three pieces.

The smaller cable bottom entry boot nearest in the picture is for the GPS antenna, which is used to provide precise timing for the cell (it's part of how the cell network functions).

Some carriers have more cables in use, depending on how their BTS is set up.

Each carrier has different colors that they will use in any given geographical area, or even nationwide. I've seen colors for one carrier be of one flavor, and in an adjacent market (geographical area, could be city or even state) a totally different set of colors. They usually try and standardize though, to keep things the same.
TheMG
Premium Member
join:2007-09-04
Canada
MikroTik RB450G
Cisco DPC3008
Cisco SPA112

TheMG to YY_9843

Premium Member

to YY_9843
And by the looks of it I'd say that's either LDF6 or LDF7. Very low loss cable. Good stuff. Expensive though, but copper thieves may be somewhat disappointed in the low copper content (these cables actually have a hollow center conductor).

I've noticed several cell sites these days that seem to have the radio integrated with the sector antennas. They are recognizable due to the fact that the cables going up the tower to the antennas are comparatively small. If you look carefully you can sometimes see LEDs on the back of the antennas at night. Probably quite a big cost saving.

Technology is advancing fast, even the stuff at the cell sites that most people never get to see. What used to occupy several equipment racks now fits in less than one rack, and consumes considerably less power.

Anyways, these were my observations from the few cell sites I've been in (which are shared sites that house stuff other than the telco's equipment).
Hahausuck
Premium Member
join:2003-12-14

Hahausuck

Premium Member

LDF7 or AVA7 if it is VZW.

TMO usually is LDF6 size usually RFS 1-1/4", I don't recall the PN right now.

Lots of sites are transitioning to RRH as a way to save power, indeed. And it is much, much smaller than the older linear BTS hardware, like on the old AMPS systems. Even newer 2g equipment occupied several bays worth of space. Now, it can take up one cabinet.
YY_9843
join:2013-06-14

YY_9843

Member

Thank you everyone for your help. Very informative, I learned a lot more than I expected.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop to TheMG

Member

to TheMG
I do something similar with power cables and PDUs in the data center. It helps to make sure that no server / router / switch ends up with both power supplies in the same PDU.

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA

cypherstream to YY_9843

MVM

to YY_9843
Any pictures from the INSIDE of an LTE compatible cell tower?
Hahausuck
Premium Member
join:2003-12-14

Hahausuck

Premium Member

Not much to see. It's pretty boring.

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA

cypherstream

MVM

Found a bunch of pics on google and also a few youtube video's.

TomS_
Git-r-done
MVM
join:2002-07-19
London, UK

3 edits

TomS_ to cypherstream

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to cypherstream
This isnt LTE, but they are 2G and 3G BTS's.

In this particular setup theres a small radio head mounted up the tower next to the antenna, connected back to these indoor units via optical fibre (red and blue.)

The only copper cable they need to run up there is to power the radio head.

This must save a lot of money not having to run big fat copper coax cables up there.




I believe the top unit is 2G and the middle 3G. The bottom unit is an "ethernet switch"/aggregation device of sorts which the 2 BTSs are connected to, and which has an ethernet uplink and some E1's to a router (Cisco MWR 2941) that was situated on the other side of the room, and which was most likely owned and operated by a local provider to provide ethernet and E1 circuits to the cell operator - probably over some sort of MPLS backbone.

Pretty amazing that a 2G base station alone used to consume a couple of racks on its own, now it fits in to a couple of RUs.
Hahausuck
Premium Member
join:2003-12-14

Hahausuck

Premium Member

I've seen that setup once. The RRHs were still mounted at the bottom though, with AVA7 cables run to the antenna. Not sure why.
voxframe
join:2010-08-02

1 recommendation

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to YY_9843
Pretty much the standard here.

More laughably... Every carrier uses the same damn boxes.

So anyone who wants to snot about who has the best technology, they all have the same gear.

Rogers, Bell, Videotron, Telus... All the exact same gear (In this area anyway). Just frequencies that change.

All use the same style setup. Main nodes down below, Fiber and DC up the tower, Radio at the top and branched out to the antennas. Worse, it's all the exact same manufacturer.

EDIT - It really is interesting though and how varied the big guys are in setup design. If you did a quick glance, you'd think it was all completely different. But deep down it's all the same gear, just laid out differently, different racking, different mounting, some keep the decorative panels, some don't. Some lace, some use vertical bars, some use cable trays, some use fiber conduit, some have a big freaking mess.
TheMG
Premium Member
join:2007-09-04
Canada
MikroTik RB450G
Cisco DPC3008
Cisco SPA112

TheMG

Premium Member

said by voxframe:

So anyone who wants to snot about who has the best technology, they all have the same gear.

Yeah, it's all marketing crap. Of course every carrier is going to claim "we have the best technology". Guess what, lots of people out there gullible enough to believe what the advertisements say.

TomS_
Git-r-done
MVM
join:2002-07-19
London, UK

TomS_

MVM

Like T-mo advertising they have 4G, when its 3G technology?

That made me facepalm so hard.

Now what do they do when they roll out real 4G kit? :-P
doubleohwhat
join:2008-10-25
Birmingham, AL

doubleohwhat

Member

said by TomS_:

Now what do they do when they roll out real 4G kit? :-P

Duh... They'll be pleased to announce that they're the first carrier with 5G!

I have to admit that I do use T-mobile though. They may technically be on 3G hardware but their network is rock solid where I live. I switched after AT&Ts network kept taking a dive right around rush hour. 4G doesn't do you much good if there's not sufficient backhaul capacity in place.
willzzz
join:2007-05-23
NY

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TomS,

Is this connected to a Ericsson RBS 6000 series BTS? Sounds like Ericsson IP RAN over Ethernet backhaul.

TomS_
Git-r-done
MVM
join:2002-07-19
London, UK

TomS_

MVM

I have no idea what is upstream of these, they were just in a hut I was working in one day, so I snapped a picture for future reference.
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