Application
Field officers or technicians from carriers, contractors and other service providers apply the skills and knowledge in this unit. This unit involves routine maintenance of network plant and equipment in various telecommunications switching and transmission environments, including wide area networks (WAN), virtual private networks (VPN) and Core networks, using wireless, optical, broadband and Next Generation Networking (NGN) technologies. |
Elements and Performance Criteria
ELEMENT | PERFORMANCE CRITERIA |
1. Plan routine maintenance | 1.1. Obtain relevant legislation, codes, regulations and standards for the given work 1.2. Determine the network elements requiring maintenance and the maintenance details from the manufacturer's equipment manual 1.3. Notify the network operations centre (NOC) of the proposed maintenance schedule and maintenance details to minimise disruption to the network 1.4. Assess the potential impact of the proposed maintenance on customers and network and plan for possible outage or deferral of maintenance 1.5. Obtain necessary tools, test equipmentand resources to undertake the maintenance 1.6. Produce a schedule of the planned routine maintenance 1.7. Negotiate schedules and access with the customer where equipment to be maintained is located on customer premises 1.8. Ascertain and record network stability to determine network performance |
2. Undertake planned maintenance | 2.1. Conduct routine maintenance tasks following occupational health and safety (OHS) and environmental requirements and record results 2.2. Escalate unresolved faults according to established enterprise procedure 2.3. Test the network equipment for required performance following routine maintenance 2.4. Check operation of associated network equipment to ensure that the maintenance did not generate other faults or alarms |
3. Report on routine maintenance and document results | 3.1. Notify all relevant parties of the results of the routine maintenance 3.2. Update routine maintenance logs and record other additional work for inclusion in the next cycle of maintenance 3.3. Complete administrative tasks and recommend any changes as required by the enterprise quality assurancesystem 3.4. Notify NOC of job completion and obtain sign off |
Required Skills
Required skills |
analytical skills to evaluate impact of maintenance on customers and network communication skills to provide advice and guidance to others and to liaise with other technical staff on operational matters initiative and enterprise skills to identify improvements to routine maintenance literacy skills to read and interpret technical data and technical and non-technical information from a range of sources PC skills to upgrade installed software planning and organisational skills to plan for outage technical skills to use hand and power tools to assemble and disassemble equipment |
Required knowledge |
alarms computer knowledge network management systems overview knowledge of telecommunications networks and equipment telecommunications test equipment and test setups telecommunications wiring practices use of scheduler |
Evidence Required
The evidence guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package. | |
Overview of assessment | |
Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit | Evidence of the ability to: plan a detailed routine maintenance schedule conduct and record routine maintenance activities procedures and techniques test network equipment complying with site risk control, OHS, environmental, quality and communication requirements. |
Context of and specific resources for assessment | Assessment must ensure: sites on which routine maintenance may be conducted use of maintenance tools and test instruments currently used in industry relevant regulatory and equipment documentation that impacts on maintenance activities. |
Method of assessment | A range of assessment methods should be used to assess practical skills and knowledge. The following examples are appropriate for this unit: direct observation of the candidate carrying out routine maintenance activities review of maintenance reports completed by the candidate for different sites and equipment oral or written questioning to assess knowledge of maintenance procedures. |
Guidance information for assessment | Holistic assessment with other units relevant to the industry sector, workplaces and job role is recommended, for example: ICTTEN4081A Locate, diagnose and rectify faults. Aboriginal people and other people from a non-English speaking background may have second language issues. Access must be provided to appropriate learning and assessment support when required. Assessment processes and techniques must be culturally appropriate, and appropriate to the oral communication skill level, and language and literacy capacity of the candidate and the work being performed. In all cases where practical assessment is used it will be combined with targeted questioning to assess required knowledge. Questioning techniques should not require language, literacy and numeracy skills beyond those required in this unit of competency. Where applicable, physical resources should include equipment modified for people with special needs. |
Range Statement
The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included. | |
Relevant legislation, codes, regulations and standards may include: | appropriate licences: cable electrical elevated work platform (EWP) rigger AS/ACIF standards and codes Australian building codes and regulations Australian and New Zealand standards cabling security codes and regulations Environmental Protection Acts fire regulations noise abatement and heritage legislation OHS relevant international standards Trade Practices Act. |
Network elements may include: | cellular base station gateway optical add drop multiplexer private automatic branch exchange (PABX) router synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) multiplexer server switch. |
Maintenance may include: | corrective maintenance remote maintenance routine maintenance. |
Network operations centre (NOC) may include: | coordinating repairs or changes to the network escalation monitoring: network alarms optical fibre cuts power failures performing diagnostic tests troubleshooting. |
Maintenance schedule may be: | details from service level agreement (SLA) frequency: monthly quarterly procedures responsibilities and commitment timings. |
Potential impact may include: | customer impact: disruption of service to residential customers intermittent performance loss of service and revenue to an enterprise customer network impact: call drop out congestion excessive latency limited coverage poor grade of service (GoS) poor signal quality routing problems transmission loss. |
Outage may include: | loss of service to customers due to a network fault or upgrade planned in the case of network upgrades unplanned in relation to faults. |
Tools, test equipment and resources may include: | resources: elevated work platform hire licensed cabler licensed electrician licensed rigger optical fibre specialist test equipment: communication system analyser lap top computer microwave link analyser multimeter optical fibre power meter optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) oscilloscope RF microwave test set RF power meter RF sweep tester spectrum analyser SWR meter transmission measuring set tools: anti-static wrist strap PC board or subrack removal tool pliers power drill screwdrivers sockets soldering iron spanners. |
Network stability may include: | reliability of the network over time reliability of the network under varying load conditions reliability of the network under varying traffic conditions. |
OHS and environmental requirements may relate to: | decommissioning and isolating work ite and lines prior to commencement safe working practices, such as the safe use and handling of: asbestos chemicals materials tools and equipment work platforms safety barriers safety equipment warning signs and tapes environmental considerations clean-up noise and dust stormwater protection waste management. |
Results may include: | calibration date lubrication date meter readings replacement of air filter date visual inspection findings: electrical cables electrical connectors failed indicator lights and alarms. |
Escalate may include: | requesting action from: expert staff network specialist NOC vendor. |
Enterprise procedure may include: | clearing faults implementing maintenance installation reporting. |
Test may include: | bandwidth bit error ratio (BER) blocking call rate congestion distortion drop out rate equipment self diagnostics functionality interference latency packet loss rate ping protocol analysis quality of service (QoS) recovery rate redundancy return loss signal level switching tests testing functionality of: individual equipment system uploads and downloads rate. |
Relevant parties may include: | customer design engineer NOC project manager supervisor. |
Administrative tasks may include: | checking and amending labelling of equipment completing test sheets according to specification completion and submission of job orders following quality control procedures handing over installation briefs and equipment manuals to operational staff recording test results updating databases updating design specifications and returning them to design area. |
Quality assurance system may include: | analysing logs correction of legacy problems documenting logs ongoing improvements reporting on installation reporting on maintenance activities. |
Sectors
Unit sector | Telecommunications |
Competency Field
Telecommunications networks engineering |
Employability Skills
This unit contains employability skills. |
Licensing Information
Refer to Unit Descriptor