Wireless Services

 

Wireless Services KOHL Provides

Business Case Development

Expert Review, Competitive Analysis, Services Definition
Cost Modeling

ROI analysis, Break Even Analysis, Cost Modeling.
Product Consulting

Requirements Review, Real-time Slotting, Power
Management, Regulatory Analysis, Interference
Mitigation
Interference Testing

Interpretation of FCC RFI Requirements, and Test
Results, Establishing Testing Credibility
Product Evaluation

Feature/Function, Performance, Security, Scalability,
Cost Model, Vendor Longevity.
Interference Management

Source Identification, BPL Susceptibility, Out of Band
Interference Mitigation/Elimination
System Architecture And Design

Network Integration, Engineering, Evolution
Planning, System Configuration
Engineering and Deployment

RFP Development, Response Evaluation,
Implementation Guidelines and Support
Network Management Engineering

Network Interconnection Implementations
Operation, Operation Support Systems

Billing, Rate Evaluation, Data Management
Project Management

On-Time, On-Budget and On-Spec Services;
Procurement Support; RFQ Writing
and Evaluation; Contract Negotiations
Regulatory Policy and Technology

Affecting FCC Pleadings Support, FCC
Compliances Support, Spectrum Acquisition Support
Power Grid Management

Evaluation Of Reliability, Wireless Approaches to Upgrading
Power Grid Management (Microwave, Fiber)
Electrical Distribution

Systems Consulting – Operations Support Systems
Development. Substation Control, Process Engineering
Liaison

Industry, Amateur Radio Advocates, Public Safety Officials,
FCC, NTIA (Government and Military Services
Capital Investment

Evaluation of Capital Investment, Acquisition
Plans; Venture Capital Advisory Services
Pilot Site Evaluation

Demographics, Physical And Topographical Features,
Home Construction and other Affecting Parameters
Propagation Evaluation

Evaluating Product Claims For Non Line of Site
and other Propagation Capabilities,

Wireless Services Process

  1. Determining Technologies, Setting Requirements to assure a successful broadband business, a Service Provider must understand its customers requirements and KOHL works with the Service Provider to define what functions, internal applications and/or commercial services are desired, and develops the appropriate performance criteria for each.  The final delivery platform choice will depend on the needs of the customer. In some cases it will be feasible to use existing fiber or T1/T3 for the backhaul. In others, Wireless  solutions could be more cost effective. The ultimate choice also depends on the availability of previously installed infrastructure, as well as the required information throughput, available bandwidth, and achievable bandwidth efficiency for a given deployment. Decisions must be made in the following areas:
    • Upstream Bit Rate
    • Downstream Bit Rate
    • Acceptable Outage Time Bit Rate
    • Security and Encryption
    • Video Quality
    • Internet Speeds
    • Streaming Video
    • Bandwidth & Efficiency
    • Voice over IP
    • Gaming
    • Encryption
    • Appropriate Frequency
    • Tolerance to Interference
    • Gateway Priority; Video Data

    Once the service requirements are defined, KOHL will recommend the spectrum to be used. This is an important step as various technologies use different frequencies. The preferred frequency band depends on many factors including the local climate, (temperature, rainfall, etc.), competing frequency users, licensed versus unlicensed frequencies, propagation requirements, line-of-site deployment versus non line-of-site deployment, topography and vegetation.

    KOHL will develop or assist the customer in engineering the network architecture for the system.

  2. Product Evalutaion KOHL will perform necessary evaluation of existing products and determine which ones meet the providers requirements. KOHL will pre-qualify sufficient products to have competitive offering of responsive bidders.
  3. RFP Generation KOHL assists in the production of a Request for Proposal (RFP), which would be sent to the various pre-approved vendors for bid. KOHL will work with the customer to establish the bid evaluation criteria matrix under which bidders products will be evaluated, and assist the customer in that evaluation. KOHL also provides technical assistance during contract negotiations.
  4. Project Management KOHL provides projectmanagement services during the implementation phase, both on the network application side and for the field  installation. KOHL develops an acceptance test program, through which the equipment will be subjected.
  5. Hands on, Field Implementation Unlike many consulting firms, KOHL has the technical and field experienced resources to assist in the deployment of WiMAX system. This includes determination of tower locations, design and implementation of fixtures, site assessments; and supervision of equipment deployment, staging and test.
  6. Post Trial Services KOHL understands that the issues of scalability are of critical concern. What might be an acceptable solution for a trial program might not be appropriate to a full scale deployment. KOHL considers this in its design of the network, takes
    necessary data during the trials with full deployment in mind and sets up goals considering the final full scale deployment.

 

Major US Wireless Service Provider Experience

KOHL brings in-depth engineering knowledge, an array of on-site, field experience and a record of successful problem solving.  KOHL provides a team of Senior Consultants to support major US Service Provider in the research, test, field trials, and network design for alternative access technologies. These technologies includes 5G, Microwave, Free Space Optics (FSO), and Broadband over Power Line (BPL), and involved working with several large investor-owned utilities. The following is a summary of the services provided by KOHL:

  1. KOHL helped the customer determine which products met its requirements, and, which had the ability to comply with the upcoming standards.
  2. KOHL carried out extensive research of diversity antenna deployment for wireless nodes;
  3. KOHL applied directional and diversity antenna technology and conducted neighborhood propagation testing associated with placing of Wireless nodes at Broadband over Power Line medium voltage nodes.
  4. KOHL managed the site selection, and Wireless tower location logistics, supervised tower mounting, devised powering mechanisms and made field propagation measurements.

Perhaps one of the most valuable offerings by KOHL is the ability to evaluate the claims of various vendors. We simply know what questions to ask, and understand the state of art sufficiently well to determine the probability of vendor claims being realized, and have the knowledge and capability to perform physical testing to prove our hypotheses.

KOHL consultants evaluated competing Wireless offerings of various vendors. This included calculating expected sector antenna illuminating areas, mounting and aiming antennas, on-tower radio and feed line installation, propagation and coverage prediction, signal strength measurements and equipment performance evaluation. KOHL ran experiments determining the effects of fog and rain attenuation on LOS, 60 GHz unlicensed radio path and compared its performance with free space optical transmission equipment operating over the same path.

Comparison of Competitive Technologies for a Major Services Provider

For an incumbent primary telephone company serving 6 Million customers, KOHL was asked to review a 5-year strategic analysis recently prepared by a Major consulting firm. The consultant had recommended that Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) cable be installed throughout the service area; with the rationale that video would be the driver of the system use. Our review was that the internet was a more important driver over the near term and that DSL would provide the optimum approach at that time.

As a result the customers Board of Directors approved our approach. The customer did not have to tear up the streets of the city, and saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

Using a combination of skills from some of the people who had designed a major HFC system, the inventor of ADSL (a KOHL Associate) and a host of business specialists, we were able to posture the customer at the optimum cost and technology, while developing a longer range plan for video using VDSL.

The Executive Vice President of the company, called KOHL the best consultant with whom he had ever worked.

Operational Support Systems (OSS)

KOHL was retained by a Service Provider to consult on designing a full-service voice and data network across 33 cities simultaneously. KOHL reviewed their business plan, network architecture and made recommendations. KOHL was then retained to provide consultants to create a Program Management Office to develop the network build-out plan and select and implement the OS System (complete with provisioning, billing, customer care and the creation of services). KOHL was able to identify and solve the customers four mission-critical problems:

(1) Integrate their systems with the incumbent Service Providers systems in 33 cities
(2) Implement a training program for a workforce expanding from 30 to 1000 over 12 months.
(3) Create requirements for the network architecture and integrating disparate OS systems.

Regulatory Interface

KOHL consulted with FCC on regulations relevant to rule-making activity and in the coordination of input major US Service supplier to this intended to influence FCC policy. KOHL established a rapport and dialog with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA, which regulates federal government spectrum use) manager directing the agency’s reporting efforts. KOHL also keeps a continuing dialogue with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) the largest association representing spectrum utilization interests of FCC-licensed amateurs, radio frequency coordinators, operators, and related NTIA-administered Military Affiliate Radio Systems (MARS) operations managers.

Major Service Supplier Electromagnetic Compatibilikty EMC

KOHL coordinated a major US suppliers research team by:

  • Visiting installed BPL systems and assessing RF radiation patterns and FCC compliance
  • Assuring the customers team recognized and dealt with potential interference and interference susceptibility issues
  • Developing measurement capabilities to determine system compliance with FCC regulations
  • Conducting test range experiments to assess (and critique) the efficacy of FCC testing procedures
  • Establishing a positive dialog with the ARRL Labs chief regarding potential interference issues between broadband providers operations and Amateur Radio Service licensees

High-Frequency (HF) Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)

A Service provider must be armed with the capability to evaluate any spectrum interference. KOHL has performed a significant amount of work with the FCC and a major US Service supplier testing for RF interferences as well as benchmarking baseline interferences.