ZTE Helped Convert Thousands of Traditional Sites into 4/5G Dual-network sites in Malaysia

The terrain in eastern Malaysia is complicated, most of the area is plateau, and the network coverage is low. In the west, it is in the economic and political center, and the quality of the existing network still needs to be improved. Based on the current situation, ZTE will cooperate closely with the two major operators in Malaysia, declaring that it has entered a new era of dual-network integration.

In Malaysia, dual-network integration has much delivery pressure: (1) There are many solution scenarios and high complexity: there are many integration scenarios with multiple operators sharing the network infrastructure, the networking relationship is complicated, and it is difficult to formulate mobility management policies for integration areas and boundaries. (2) The technology delivery path is complicated: The integration involves the cooperation of multiple operators in relocation and reconstruction, and there are many intermediate states. It imposes high requirements upon site commissioning and configuration. In various scenarios, the network disconnection time is demanding, and the process needs to be optimized to guarantee user perception during the integration process. (3)Large-scale delivery: It is estimated that more than thousands of sites will be implemented in 2023, including reconstruction and integration of more than thousands of sites, construction and expansion of hundreds of sites, and dismantle of thousands of sites.

Facing the complicated and diversified solution scenarios and technical delivery paths, ZTE adopts the  integration strategy of traditional innovations, and combines the electronic engineering survey mode with the offline list mode to help partners efficiently complete the site survey and design. Establish a remote delivery team to ensure that the front-end and back-end teams marching in step. Making use of the antenna-scenarios solution tool and material visualization tool can improve the efficiency of site survey and installation. This series of innovative measures have driven a new record of delivering more than 1000 sites in a month, demonstrating the speed of Malaysia to the world.

During the execution of previous projects, electronic survey has not been fully implemented in Malaysia, and local partners are accustomed to the traditional offline list mode for survey. To ensure the timely achievement of large-scale delivery milestones in May and June, the ZTE engineering design team decided to implement the combination mode of electronic survey and offline list, and help operators adapt to the new survey mode, intending to make changes founding on steadiness. The engineering design breaks through the traditional mode, integrates the existing network information and planning information into the survey template in accordance with the customer’s and local survey custom, and collects and uploads the existing network information to the iEPMS system through the electronic survey.The iEPMS system is an engineering project management system independently developed by ZTE. It provides the schedule plan management, cost budget management, material management, document management, and electronic survey functions. The structured document function in the iEPMS system helps operators export survey reports in batches. The iEPMS system can link the planning information to the survey template, so that the operators only need to pay attention to the network planning and power supply，which can greatly avoid filling errors. In this new survey mode, the efficiency of local operators increased from 1 site to 1.4 sites per day. There are nearly thirty local partners in Malaysia, saving about 11.6 working hours per day. The average accuracy rate of project survey reports increased from 50% to over 90%.

In Malaysia dual-network integration, there are many antenna installation scenarios, involving more than 100 types of antennas, and various interface types, frequency bands, and connection modes. In the early stage of the project, operators may confuse the antenna interface type and connection mode, causing incorrect dispatching of site installation materials and reversed sector connection during installation. To solve this problem, ZTE engineering design team launched the antenna-scenarios solution tool, which efficiently collects and sorts out more than 100 antenna types and installation operation guides, helps operators quickly find the corresponding connection solution in accordance with the antenna feeder installation scenarios, and accurately draws the antenna feeder connection diagram to complete equipment installation. With the antenna-scenarios solution tool, the efficiency of on-site survey and installation is greatly improved, and the operation error rate reduced to 5%.

It is a one-stop analysis platform that integrates data preparation, report preparation, and data analysis. Service personnel can easily and quickly prepare and analyze data reports, bringing service-driven data analysis work mode.Relying on the ZTE SDP report system, the ZTE engineering design team has realized the visualization of the outbound data and the number of replenishment sites of the Malaysia project, and accurately located the region where replenishment was performed and the reason for replenishment. This provided effective data for reducing secondary site visits, greatly reduced the cost of repeated site visits, and successfully reduced the replenishment ratio of each region to less than 5%.

In the early stage of project initiation, it was the Ramadan of the local Malay people. In the daytime, local people do not eat, and the efficiency of the local design manager and local partners cannot be guaranteed. To ensure on-schedule project delivery, ZTE engineering design team has set up a remote delivery team that consists of eight Chinese engineers. The on-site responsible person assists the remote delivery team in communicating with partners about the details, including the design solution and installation scenario. The front-end and back-end teams have a clear division of labor. Finally, the project reached a monthly delivery of 1000+ sites, creating a new speed of delivery in Malaysia.

The dual-network integration project aims to complete network merging within three years, reducing the number of wireless sites by 35% of the existing network in Malaysia. In the future, ZTE will continue to collaborate with Malaysia’s operators and make design for every site with professional strength， help customers efficiently complete dual-network integration and bring more stable and faster communication experience to local people.