Network capacity at major events

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ambo

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I've just arrived home from the Colab concert at Supersport Park - awesome gig btw :D
But the main reason for my post is the fact that for most of the day - the Vodacom network was hopelessly overloaded and it was impossible to make or receive calls or sms's or anything!!
My question is why do they not provision temporary additional infrastucture when you have 45000 people in one place for a day?? I know the stuff exists - i've seen one that is a 'cell tower in a trailer'

Now while this was only really a nuisence for me today - it has been far more critical on previous occasions:
I was working as a Medic at the MetroFM music festival last year. I got sepparated from my partner who had our radio - and then i found myself in a very dangerous and compromising situation and i was unable to call the backup that i required - once again due to an overloaded network.

Also - i have seem that most cellphones seem to have a facility where you can choose premium rated calls with a higher priority on the network - or something like that. However, i have never seen anything like that mentioned as being available on SA's networks. Why is this so??
 
Normal practise is to plan and deploy enough extra capacity at these so-called 'special events'. Mobile base stations are deployed to address extra capacity as best as possible.

Radio network planning is quite an art with the number of subscribers per cell, the number of neighbours (other cells) to that cell, geography, available frequencies, transmission availability, legal issue, etc. all playing a roll in the final design. Once a specific area is up and running, it's not so easy just to add cells as all the above are affected.

Now suddenly, you add 45000 users into the space normally covered by one cell! Just for a few hours. And they all happen to be calling everyone to tell them how cool a gig they're missing. Or, even worse, they call each other, doubling the needed channels.

Quite a challenge, but the radio guys normally do a great job. Think how many times you HAVE been able to make a call in such a situation. They normally will get into the spirit by changing the cell broadcast to add some flair as well.

And , importantly, they also need to ensure the 'normal' network in the area is not affected.

But sometimes there are some limitations. Maybe it was a frequency issue, maybe backhaul transmission.

A final point to ponder; Vodacom is in the business of mobile services. Would be quite silly NOT to try and serve 45000 excited, slightly inebriated users who'll be making calls to whomever they can get on the line....
 
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Correct me if I'm wrong but your phone always chooses the strongest tower, so then what if you used the netmonitor to lock the phone to a weaker tower some distance away from the event but one that is probably not overloaded? Could this work?
 
I've always wanted to know if it's the phone that chooses the base station using signal strength or does the network actually switch the base station the phone is connected to depending on load and signal strength?
 
vodacom3g said:
Now suddenly, you add 45000 users into the space normally covered by one cell! Just for a few hours. And they all happen to be calling everyone to tell them how cool a gig they're missing. Or, even worse, they call each other, doubling the needed channels.
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I agree - quite a monumental challenge :D
The unfortunate reality though was that their were no people on Vodacom even getting through - i tried for and hour to phone 2 of my friends who i was trying to find at the event (yes i know - using 2 channels on the cell :cool: ) and eventually gave up... then i resorted to sms - which took on ave 30 to 50 attempts before the message sent sucessfully and another 2-3 hours for delivery to occur.
Lots of people were doing the 'phone-to-ear, redial, phone-to-ear, redial...' early on and then most just gave up - and the others who really wanted to get through were trolling the crowd for MTN users (apparently things were better on that network :o )

I saw no indication of addition cell (cell id's) being deployed however i don't know if that was neccessarily Vodacom's fault - looking at some of the othe logistical bungle's by the organisers it wouldn't surprise me if they hadn't even bothered to inform the networks of the event...
 
ambo said:
But the main reason for my post is the fact that for most of the day - the Vodacom network was hopelessly overloaded and it was impossible to make or receive calls or sms's or anything!!
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It's a general problem at sports events too. I frequently go to Newlands rugby stadium and whenever there's a big match on, making a cellphone call is very difficult, especially for about 20 minutes after the match when everyone tries to call their buddy/girlfriend/mommy/whatever to emphasize the big win (or loss). ;)
 
did not have any problems at the concert using the mtn 3g network... i think it is mainly due to the network not being used by too many people yet...I made lots of calls and even sent mms and e-mails with photo attachments...
 
vodacom3g said:
Apologies for the ignorance but where exactly was the gig? :)
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5fm - Coca-Cola Colab Massive Mix at Supersport Park in Centurion.
Affectionately know by some as the 'Metallica Concert' :D
There's the Durban concert at Absa Statium on Tues and Cape Town at Green Point Stadium next Saturday.
 
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MTN was fine with no problems. I had two phones with me (don't ask why) - Vodacom phone was useless.
 
arf9999 said:
MTN was fine with no problems. I had two phones with me (don't ask why) - Vodacom phone was useless.
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True. Phoning from Vodacom and to vodacom was problem. :)
 
ic said:
v3g, please could you include Vodacom's Durban & CT [capacity planning|radio|whatever] folks in the loop [email trail] - they need to make sure the same thing doesn't happen on Tuesday & Saturday:Basically instigate some of that freindly provincial rivalry within Vodacom's planning departments :D.

I can imagine that some large percentage of 45000 people all repetitively wanting & unable to send sms(es) & mms(es) represents a large loss of revenue for Vodacom...
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How do you know me? :)

I already e-mailed them asking / warning about the upcoming events.....
 
ic said:
On the ball as always :).

About AdLo's suggestion of increased cell capacity in areas with large public venues [e.g. stadia], would it not theoretically be easier to put up cell towers at fours corners of a stadium than in the heart of surrounding residential areas?
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That would be ideal, but I think quite difficult. You want to cover the entire stadium including the parts inside (i.e. underneath the stands/inside the physical structure) so you need enough signal strength for that, but then how do you get that signal to not cover the surrounding residential areas?

Ideally, you would want localised, low power towers outside (as in near the rugby field) as spectators will all have line of sight to these towers, and then inside the structure more like what they do at shopping malls or large buildings i.e. many small "towers" in all the walkways - I've seen a large hotel where each floor had a transmitter every 20m or so.

I wonder how many radio channels would be needed to ensure one doesn't get network busy most of the time? I'd imagine this will have to be a lot. Let's assume only 1% of the crowd uses their phone at a time. That is 1% of 45000 or 450. Seeing that each radio channel can carry 8 calls at a time, the number of radio channels required is 450/8 = 56! This is a crap load of towers!
But then the problem remains that one's phone doesn't know (AFAIK) which channels are open for calls and which are busy. So the solution really is then multiple low power towers all over the stadium.

The fact that Vodacom gets network busy more often at these events than MTN could also hint to the fact that Vodacom has more subscribers?
 
As Durban's event is at ABSA stadium, I do not see too much of a problem. I have attended numerous rugby matches there where there were crowds of similar magnitude (45 000) and up till last season, there were problems making a call or sending an sms. Since early last rugby season, VC seems to have got their act together there as I have not experienced any problems with either calls or sms - and they have 3G in the stadium and surrounding area!!! :D
 
Ok, some feedback.

Vodacom Durbs were not informed about this event, so it's probably a similar situation in Pretoria and Cape Town.

However, the Banana boys recon they're not fased, already have ABSA Stadium covered for rugby with extra 2G and 3G towers.

3g_rox seems to confirm this.

Will take it up with Cape Town as well.
 
vodacom3g said:
Ok, some feedback.

Vodacom Durbs were not informed about this event, so it's probably a similar situation in Pretoria and Cape Town.

However, the Banana boys recon they're not fased, already have ABSA Stadium covered for rugby with extra 2G and 3G towers.

3g_rox seems to confirm this.

Will take it up with Cape Town as well.
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Maybe I should change my name to Durbs_rox :D At least I now understand why the Durban 3G network is so good!! Maybe the guys in Durbs should be "loaned" to other parts of the country to sort out their network issues.
 
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Wonder if anyone here went to the concert last night in Durbs - my mates tell me they were able to make and receive calls and send and receive sms's and mms's throughout the concert. Well done Vodacom Durbs - sorry I missed the concert.
 
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