What does M&C stand for at a teleport?

Monitoring and control: software that collects status from ground station equipment and sends commands to it, usually from one central console.

What signal metrics should a teleport monitor?

Commonly C/N, Eb/No, MER and BER on each carrier, along with antenna beacon level and amplifier output power.

Can an M&C system control equipment from different vendors?

A multi-vendor system can, using a driver for each device type. Check that your exact models are covered, including control functions.

Teleport monitoring and control: what an M&C system should do

For teleport operators and ground segment engineers.

A teleport M&C system should show every RF chain from antenna to modem, measure signal quality on each carrier, switch to redundant equipment automatically, and let a small team run several sites from one place.

Equipment across the chain

Antennas: position, tracking mode, beacon level and drive faults.
High power amplifiers: output power, temperature and mute state.
Upconverters, downconverters and LNBs: frequency, lock and gain.
Modulators, demodulators and encoders: configuration and status.
Site systems: power, generators, HVAC and access.

Signal quality

Equipment can report healthy while a service degrades. Measure the carrier as well as the box.

C/N and Eb/No against expected link budgets.
MER and BER trends.
Carrier identification and interference detection.
Service level reporting against customer commitments.

Redundancy and automation

A teleport runs on redundant chains, and switching has to be right under pressure. Automate the routine cases, and log what ran.

Automatic redundancy switching when a chain fails.
Scheduled operations, such as satellite moves and carrier plans.
Weather-related responses, such as uplink power control.
Emergency procedures that an operator can run with one action.

Running several sites

Central operation is where the economics of a teleport change. Look for one global view, the ability to drill down to one chain, and secure control across every site, including through a loss of connection to the central system.

Common questions

What does M&C stand for at a teleport?: Monitoring and control: software that collects status from ground station equipment and sends commands to it, usually from one central console.
What signal metrics should a teleport monitor?: Commonly C/N, Eb/No, MER and BER on each carrier, along with antenna beacon level and amplifier output power.
Can an M&C system control equipment from different vendors?: A multi-vendor system can, using a driver for each device type. Check that your exact models are covered, including control functions.