Supervised by Prof. Nicola Laurenti, University of Padova.
Telecommunication Towers sites carry antenna, transmitters and receivers (Base Transmitter Station (BTS)) for mobile communications. With an increase in mobile communication in Africa, mobile service providers such as MTN, Orange and Airtel need to improve their telecommunication coverage by proper maintenance of towers. In Africa, most mobile service providers share a common tower, therefore towers are owned by Tower companies such as IHS, Towerco and Helios. These tower companies carryout maintenance and fueling operations in their respective sites with the help of field agents.
Fueling operations on telecommunication tower sites by field agents have encountered problems with loss of volumes of fuel and inconsistency with figures. Tracking consumption and being informed of fueling in real time has become a necessity for sites with serious losses. As the field agents record information on consumption and fueling manually, this process is becoming less trustworthy. For predictive analysis to be carried out on these sites, true data is to be collected and saved. An administrator working at a distance of 60 km or more from the tower wants to be notified each time fueling is carried out. He/she wants to have a constant view of the different fueling operations carried out in a month without going to the sites to supervise. Most especially, to receive notification of theft or fraud at real time.
In this work, we will elaborate on the different methods by which researchers have approached analogous or similar problems and explain the method chosen for collection of data and the device required for this process. We will discuss the various security measures to ensure the data transfer is authentic, integral and not intercepted by an eavesdropper (unauthorized person), then describe the process of real time notification.
Telecommunication tower companies invest huge capital on fuel since they want each site to have enough to power cells without interruption. Two of these major
problems are;
Theft: This may occur during purchase of fuel at the station or during transportation to site or during provisioning of the generator on site. Most tower companies purchase fuel from stations a considerable distance from their sites, without supervision of the fuel truck, field agent may do as he/she wishes. On site, field agent can fill in whatever quantity to the tank since the tank is not being monitored. Other ways of theft include removal of volume of fuel by external members or field agent after fueling.
Fraud: Replacing fuel with another liquid which in the long run destroys the generator. Modifying data collected on site in order to conceal theft. Some field agents partner with fuel station agents to falsify the quantity of fuel bought on the receipts. On the fueling report spreadsheet, they fill in a volume which may not correspond to the volume of fuel bought.
We propose an automated system to monitor fueling operations in telecommunication tower sites. These are a few contributions we bring to the scientific community with interest in improving monitoring on fueling activities.
- We use two kinds of sensors (volumetric and flow) to design two electronic devices used for collecting information unlike other studies which used one. A simulation of each electronic device on a virtual platform is detailed out in this work.
- During Transmission, we encrypt the data collected and decrypt this coded information in the server. In addition, we propose security protocols such as Datagram Transfer Layer Security Protocol (DTLS) and SSID (Service Set Identifiers) Hiding to limit unauthorized people connecting to the wireless access point of both the electronic devices and server (in the case of physical server).
- We designed an Expert system for processing collected information using expert knowledge acquired during field work.
- We embed into this system a notification system which sends emails and SMS to alert tower authorities within 1 minute after purchase is done and 1 minute after the tank has been fueled.
Tower companies face fuel pilferage and this affects the business. This theft could be carried out by field agents while fueling the tanks. Fraud of values from purchase receipts to consumption values to conceit theft has become rampant. Fuel operation, being a key activity in tower sites, need constant supervision. Since most of the tower sites are found in isolated zones, supervision by presence on site is very difficult.
In this work, we propose a solution to these three major problems; theft, fraud and lack of supervision. This solution exposes theft done by the field agent. It collects information automatically preventing the field agent from manipulating the values. The notification system embedded in this solution informs tower company authorities on the process of fueling. It also notifies them of fueling operation which were not properly done. This information can be visualized using a web app, making it easy for follow up by authority.
This work will help tower companies supervise their isolated tower sites without spending money on transportation and determine which field agent commits a fraud or theft. It will present an evidence to make the field agent pay for fuel stolen. Overall, it will improve the tower company’s business by reducing operational expenditures (OPEX) .