Together with Telekom Slovenije, Metronik designed and built a state-of-the-art remote control system for telecommunications equipment of Telekom and roaming telecommunication operators; the equipment is installed in 191 facilities around Slovenia.
To ensure the smooth operation of the telecommunication network, all sites must be equipped with power supply, suitable air conditioning, uninterrupted power supplies, and a continuous control of the systems; in case of failures or problems this must be immediately reported to the service personnel.
The control system is designed on the territorially redundant iFIX SCADA software equipment which, to increase security, continuously collects data from all sites at two control centres located in Ljubljana and Maribor. Both centres have a redundant Historian for continuous data collection and long-term archiving; the data are then made available through the WEB server to the maintenance department which is dispersed throughout Slovenia.
Via the telecommunications network, the data from each site are then provided by 191 distributed PAC R1 controllers manufactured by the American company Opto 22; the advantages of these controllers are their high reliability, protection from electric disturbances and highly efficient communication options. In addition to the measurements of climate conditions in the premises, the PAC R1 controllers report also information about the consumption of electricity by site depending on the renter and supervise the operation of UPS systems and other devices, for example air conditioners, diesel generators, inverters, local batteries, access systems and door locking.
The entire system continuously captures over 40,000 measurements and data from all remote sites; these are then sent to Telekom’s supervision staff by means of a well-organised SCADA control system. The maintenance department receives warnings about any failures or problems in real time at any of the 191 sites; therefore, it can promptly initiate the required steps in case of an alarm and eliminate failures much faster than before. The system significantly increased the reliability of operation of the telecommunications network and ensured an overview over energy consumption for individual network renters.
The system uses the potential of dislocated devices for connecting and transferring data to the centre following the principle of Internet of Things (IoT); this is a good example of how added value can be created for users by means of modern technologies.