LTE SON-Function Coordination Concept

Nowadays smartphones and tablets are used nearly everywhere at any time. The need for mobile networks with high bandwidth increases fast as all of those network elements require Internet connection for almost all applications. The radio access technologies ranging from GSM over UMTS to the currently upcoming LTE networks become more and more complex and with it the effort of controlling this complexity exceed manpower. To solve this problem Self-Organising Networks (SON) were created in order to operate, administrate and maintain these networks. This paper specifically takes a look at LTE SON. Several SON functions were implemented so far to gain a optimisation of the networks efficiency. In Order to avoid negative function interactions, so called conflicts, function coordination is necessary. This paper takes a look at a couple of severe SON conflicts and how they can be avoided by SON function coordination. So far, SON with some of the most evolved functions have been used depending on the respective operator, but they become more and more important as complexity rises.