John Merrifield

Principal Engineer

UK Broadband

March 11 - Sept 12

ISO18001 H&S WiFi iperf speedtest.net PPE LTE

I constructed a prototype lampost mounted box to backhaul our Ruckus Wifi units over our LTE network in Reading

I constructed a prototype long range LTE box by integrating the LTE indoor circuit board on to a long range panel antenna.

Responsible for working with new customers to our LTE service in Southwark, demonstrating LTE Box, installing and supporting.

I was one of the Health and Safety team of three formed to get the company’s health and safety systems up to date including ISO18001 accreditation.

My responsibilities on this team are mainly to do with site working rather than office based H&S. Tasks include writing risk assessments, defining policies for working at height, PPE, RF Safety etc and receiving training in various H&S disciplines.

I 'owned' our Reading WiFi network of 28 Ruckus access points units meshing with each other then backhauling through three Ruckus point to point links to one of our radio sites. This has involved installing, configuring and performance testing of UDP and FTP up and downloads, replacing faulty units, upgrading software and moving p-p links and access points for improved performance.

I assisted in the specification of an on-site cabinet for the deployment of an LTE network, this specification has been mainly centred around minimising power requirements and reducing weight and size of cabinet for agile (and cheap!) deployment.

Sabbatical

UK Broadband

August 09 - March 11

Australia Vanuatu Thailand Nepal Cambodia Madeira Pralognan la Vanoise

Firstly a solo trip to USA hiking in Colorado and Utah and sailing in Long Beach followed by some home decorating. Then had enormous fun travelling, with my wife Carol, in Australia and South East Asia for six months

This was followed up by Christmas in UK then two weeks in Madeira and a month of cross country skiing and snowboarding to put the icing on the cake!

Principal Engineer

UK Broadband

Nov 05 - Aug 09

802.11abgn IpWireless Proprietary training WiMAXremote power cycling troubleshooting

Investigated and implemented remote power cycling units on our base sites to allow us to remotely power cycle our base station equipments.

I investigated a rash of apparent TTLNA failures on our 60 site IpWireless network. Cause found to be sensitivity to supply voltage on some units this resulted in failed TTLNA on long PoE cable runs. Specification of a low resistance industrial strength PoE cable solved the problem network-wide.

Applying second line fixes to defective IpWireless base stations returned from field and triaging them prior to RMA.

Implemented a major software upgrade that had to be done by hand on site across a 22 sites network simultaneously with customer modem upgrades.

I designed and implemented a much improved physical connection for the umbilical PoE cable on Alcatel Wimax base station radio heads.

Project Engineered a series of tests to determine the attenuation at 3.5GHz afforded by GRP panels employed in 'stealth' solutions for disguising telecoms equipment on rooftops

Commissioned a number of Alcatel WiMax base sites in Reading and London area.

I implemented a 5 unit outdoor WiFi trial,l using Moovera WiFi units and 3G backhaul in the centre of Reading.

I implemented a 3 unit WiFi indoor network in student accommodation in Reading utilising 4G proprietary backhaul once again with the Moovera access points.

Acted as main liaison point with Moovera.

Managed calibration of all test equipment.

Trained a first line maintenance field team of 7 to troubleshoot IpWireless network faults, visit sites and replace units.

Implementation Engineer

UK Broadband

Jan 05 - Nov 05

project engineering relationship building attention to detail passion

Implementing, using a team of contractors, a 33 site IP Wireless network in West London, responsibility for the I&C operation converting a 'built' site to an integrated one ready to hand over to Operations.

Project Engineer - Contract role

UK Broadband

Mar 04 - Dec 04

project engineering microwave link eng relationship building telephone skills

Project Engineer responsible for implementing a number of microwave links to support the build of a 22 site IpWireless network in Reading, Slough, Maidenhead. Project Managed the final stages of this project, liaising with contractors and suppliers.

Project Manager - Contract role

Infocell Telecom

Dec 1998 - Dec 2003

project engineering customer liason installation skillsTETRA

Project Managed/Engineered a number of Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) projects in Reading, Manchester, Southampton, Crawley and Eindoven. Projects utilised TETRA and GPRS to update passenger timetables in real time. Tasks also included liasing with customer, advising on radio strategy, installing RTPI kit on buses/coaches.

Consultant - Mobile Data

Dolphin Telecom

Feb 98 - June 00

TETRAbuilding relationships mobile data evangelist presenting skills event management

Built a partner program for apps providers to work with Dolphin on TETRA mobile applications.

Chair of TETRA Business Solutions Group: Re-formed this group from WP10 of the TETRA MoU, staged a number of workshops and events and spoke at many conferences hosted by IIR in London and in Europe including TETRA World Congress. Awarded 'Most significant contribution to TETRA in 2001' by my peers in the MoU for this work.

Secretary of TETRA MoU Operators' Association, performing secretariat duties at Operator hosted venues around Europe.

Director of Radio

Contactica-Axis

April 97 - Jan 98

laptop keyboard skills radio planning relationship building sales skills

Responsible for demonstrating, co-ordinating, marketing and selling the company’s laptop based radio planning tool. Product demonstrated at locations including Stockholm, London, Delhi, Singapore, Dallas.

Let go due to Asian currency crisis collapsing the budget for this business arm