Harnessing Subscriber-Centric Optimization for the Next Generation of Self-Organizing Networks

White Paper Self-organizing networks (SON) have interested the cellular industry for many years. Work in this area started in 2006 at 3GPP with initial studies on the general concepts and requirements. There was a clear impetus to study SON—networks were becoming larger and more complex, and the maturing of 3G meant that operators had to grapple with the complexities of getting multiple radio access technologies to work and interact effectively. These heterogeneous networks had increasing numbers of configuration parameters, making their optimization very complex. The infrastructure was carrying increasing traffic, with a mix of services including voice, data, and SMS over 2G and 3G networks. This put pressure on CapEx to add capacity and OpEx to defer the need for capital spend by optimizing existing infrastructure.