SB InfoVista Self Optimizing Solution for Mobile Networks

7/30/2019 SB InfoVista Self Optimizing Solution for Mobile Networks

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Self-Optimizing Solution for 2G3G and 4G Mobile Networks

Dynamically maximizing the performance and Quality of Service

(QoS) of current and future mobile infrastructures


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According to US analyst rm Inonetics Research, the worldwide OPEX-to-revenue ratio amongst MNOs is 70 percent. With revenue

growth slowing down and CAPEX increasing due to the deployment o more cost-eective networks, its no surprise that controlling

and reducing OPEX is a key strategy to increase margins.

The radio access network (RAN) is the most costly domain o every MNO. This is in part due to the complexity o the RAN

inrastructure, which incorporates tens o thousands o cell sites, hundreds o thousands o miles o transport networks, hundreds

o third-party vendor and providers contracts and hundreds employees. The extent o the RANs impact on OPEX was recently

quantied by Yankee Group, who estimated that 80 percent o MNOs network OPEX can be attributed to the RAN. Based on these

gures, its clear that the RAN, as a domain, oers MNOs one o the biggest opportunities to increase and protect their prot margins.

According to Yankee Group, approximately 26 percent o MNOs OPEX budget is spent on network operations. To put this in

perspective, a leading US tier1 MNO needs to spend as much as 9 billion USD annually to operate, manage and optimize its network.

Reducing or controlling OPEX is not a simple task. Each network domain poses unique challenges and OPEX reduction opportunities

that MNOs can take advantage o. In addition, many opportunities are present at each unctional layer, including maintenance, O&M

service delivery and assurance, connectivity leasing, support and energy, etc.

The solution to release RAN Organizations Pressure

Its no surprise why the pressure rom RAN organizations has drastically increased over the last decade. On one hand, they are being

asked to control and reduce OPEX by maintenance, management, power consumption, sta, etc.; and on the other, they have to keep

improving and assuring QoS and QoE KPIs. Furthermore, RAN organizations have to also deliver in a timely manner a host o network

upgrade projects

Many o these projects also bring new technologies. For many, the arrival o LTE and IP backhauls are urther extending the RANs

challenge o reducing OPEX and achieving KPIs. These new inrastructures introduce new network elements and thousands o

parameters that RAN organisations will need to congure, monitor, assure and optimize in parallel o the legacy activities. New

technologies also equate to new equipment vendors in the network, translating into more management systems, proprietary

parameters and interaces. - Its no surprise that RAN organizations need quick answers to the ollowing questions:

1. Is there an easier way osensing the perormance and quality o our network?

2. Is there a more ecient way to detect and compensate or service outages?

3. Is there a more ecient way to optimize our coverage, capacity and perormance?

4. Is there a more ecient way to mitigate trac load hotspots?

5. Is there a way to reduce power consumption?

At InoVista we believe the key to next-gen network optimization relies on how much time RAN engineers have to perorm high-value

network management and optimization tasks while redening and prioritizing RAN best practices.

Workfow automation is an important capability to utilize to provide engineers with additional time. Automating the management

and optimization o 2G, 3G and 4G networks provides RAN experts with the time necessary to plan, design and deploy aster and

more cost-ecient networks. Thereore, the resulting networks are proactively optimized and eciently managed. - Critical enablers

or OPEX reduction and QoE assurance.

MNOs are struggling to manage, optimize and upgrade multiple legacy infrastructures. As ARPU decreases, CAPEX and

OPEX rise and revenue stalls, increasing EBIDA margins have never presented such a challenge.

The Challenge of Controlling RANs OPEX


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A Solid Foundation for SON Automation From Manual to SON

Step 1 - IdentiyingSON Automation

Priorities

To deploy a SON solution that

guarantees a quick return on

investment (ROI), MNOs need

to be able to easily identiy

the areas o optimization that

would provide the maximum

benet. VistaSON includes

unique network analytics

and reporting engines whichallows MNOs to proactively

identiy 2G, 3G and 4G SON-

hotspots. VistaSON analyses

key perormance indicators

to identiy coverage holes,

perormance degradations,

network overload and mobility

patterns in handover and

utilization.

Step 2 - Automation oRoutine Optimization

and Management Tasks

Perhaps the most important

step towards ully automated

networks, InoVistas VistaSON

is equipped with a unique

open script ramework.

This ramework allows RAN

engineers to automate daily

or yearly repetitive RAN

maintenance and optimizationworkfows. Once implemented,

this critical unctionality (not

dened by the NGMN) enables

the creation o pre-SON

customized use cases that ree

up engineers time, allowing

them to ocus solely on higher

value, more complex SON

eatures.

Step 3 - Semi Sel-Automated Actions /

Open Loop SON

The next step toward a

ully automated network is

deploying approval-needed

sel-automated actions

in the network. VistaSON

leverages the NGMN concept

o open loop, allowing MNOs

to control the automatic

activation o key optimizationactions as dierent SON

engines and algorithms

detect them. VistaSON also

provides the right level o

visibility to enable engineers

to measure the impact o such

actions with a unique set o

beore and ater perormance

visualizations.

Step 4 - Fully Sel-Automated Actions

This is the nal destination o

a ully automated SON action.

By leveraging the concept o

closed-loop, as dened by the

NGMN, VistaSON allows RAN

engineers to congure and

deploy pre-approved SON

actions. Once engineers have

monitored and validated thepositive eect o a particular

open-loop action, they can use

this eature to automatically

apply a pre-dened action

to a set o network resources

or management clusters

dened by the user.

Amount of human Involvement required

Automatingcurrent manualprocesses

and workows

SemiSelf-Automation(Open loop SON)

FullSelf-Automation(Closed loop SON)

4321

IdentifyingSON Priorities

PROCESS

Figure 1 InfoVistas Step-by-step approach to SON

InoVistas solution or enabling SON automation is not just a tool; its the combined result o a process, an enabler and a platorm.

InoVistas SON approach consists o a step-by-step ramework. This ramework enables MNOs to saely transition rom a manualnetwork optimization practice with maximum human decision-making involvement to a ull, closed-loop dynamic network

optimization practice where users approve automations that can be triggered by pre-dened network conditions.


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SON Perormance Metrics

VistaSON is also equipped with a proprietary set o SON compound KPIs, such as multi-cell load imbalance metrics and the

identication o under-perorming cells based on metrics correlations. In addition, VistaSON provides visibility into dominant

mobility path prediction metrics by processing handover metrics to identiy mobility and congestion propagation paths in the

network.

SON Optimization Notications and Historical Action Logs

The VistaSON management console includes a notication engine that alerts the user o SON optimization opportunities. This

eature is a critical enabler o semi-sel automated SON actions (step 3 o the InoVista ramework). In addition, the VistaSON

visualization engine is able to keep track o all actions perormed in the network. This allows engineers to monitor the operation

o the platorm, which is especially important when running actions in closed-loop mode.

Open Scripting Framework

Open SON scripting allows network management teams to develop customized SON solutions driven by their unique operational

needs. In addition to the sophisticated SON algorithms delivered with this product, operations teams have all the fexibility they

need to build their own business logics and script routines needed to automate simple, yet time-consuming recurring tasks suchas parameter audits and bulk parameter updates (e.g. what are the current RET settings or all cells in a certain market?). In more

sophisticated use cases, Operators are able to source in near real time KPI analytics within their scripts to react to network events that

they are otherwise reacting to manually. Built with cell locking mechanisms, script priority management and manual over rides, this

oers a SON Development Platorm or Operators who aspire to innovate SON algorithms and work fows themselves or have a good

degree o control on the automation modules delivered by InoVista.

Figure 3 Open SON Scripting Engine = Topology View

Workfow Automation Proles

Furthermore, engineers can build tailored automation proles dened by the combination o:

Objects:NodeBs, Cells, RNC, EMS, antenna controller

Actions Scripts Examples: RAN bulk parameter pushes to eect remote antenna tilts (up/down, pan, an), TX power, etc, Bulk

Parameter audits and exception reports, busy hour congurations, energy saving plan enorcement /recalls.

Triggers: High/low threshold, Time-o-day/week/month, up/down runs, max delta, manual alerts


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OPEN Vendor-Independent RAN Automation

The VistaSON platorm is equipped with an open perormance-sensing layer that monitors and correlates the utilization and QoS o

multiple RAN equipment vendors. It also collects radio parameters and topology data rom multiple planning tools.

Intelligent Pattern Recognition and Trending

VistaSON goes one step urther rom near real-time optimization. It includes a set o learning capabilities, which allow the detectionand recognition o recurrent mobility, QoS and tra c load patterns. This capability is crit ical or identiying and mitigating daily,

weekly or seasonal hotspot scenarios such as rush hours, sporting events or popular holiday destinations. In addition, VistaSON

incorporates a powerul trending and base-lining engine, which provides the SON brain with accurate orecasted views o radio

network KPIs, including utilization, call drops and hand-over ailures.

Planning Tool

KPIs + Algorithms + Visibility

SON Engineer

Nokia NetActEricsson OSS-RC

RABRASRET

Huawei M2000

Antenna ControllersRAWCounters

RAWCounters

SON Prole

SON Actions

UpdatedParameters

Figure 4 VistaSON Functional Overview

SON augments

capacity and

reduces the humaninvolvement

required to cope

with increasing

RAN complexity.


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Out-of-the-Box Modules

As dened by the NGMN, use cases or sel-organizing networks aim to alleviate the need or human intervention in the our key

stages o the LTE network liecycle planning, deployment, optimization and maintenance. VistaSON includes a set o out-o-the-box2G to 4G use cases that are designed to rapidly enable the automation needed to ulll requirements dened in the optimization and

maintenance liecycle stages.

Dynamic Load Balancing

This use case continuously monitors the RAN inrastructure to detect network

overloads (hotspots) and identiy mobility tra c patterns throughout the

day. With this insight, VistaSON algorithms can proactively adjust the RET, RAS

and RAB antenna settings o a cluster o cells to acilitate load management

between neighboring sectors to provide overall gain in eective capacity during

congestion hours.

Automatic Outage Detection & Compensation

Known as a sel-healing capability, this use case is comprised o a set o

algorithms that constantly monitor the radio network inrastructure or

cell outages. On detection o a cell ailure, VistaSON leverages the remote

control capabilities available in RET, RAS and RAB neighboring antennas to

automatically adjust their settings and provide coverage compensation during

the outages saving the operator substantial revenue losses and customer

churn that they would normally incur through their current manual remedial

processes.

Green Networks Power Savings

This energy saving use case intentionally places under-utilized network cells

into a sleep mode during periods o very low tra c and temporarily adjusts

neighbor cell antenna RET, RAS and RAB settings to assure area coverage during

sleep mode operation. Substantial power and cost savings may be achieved

in part due to the power associated with biasing the linear power ampliers

(LPAs) utilized by 3G and 4G (HSPA, LTE) broadband technologies. Cost savings

apart, this also allows Mobile Operators to market themselves as green and

environment riendly.

On-going Coverage & Capacity Optimization

This use case constantly monitors actual perormance metrics or RAN

parameters and network planning data to identiy weak coverage and capacity

spots that can be optimized to improve QoE. This is a gradual ne-tuning

process that optimizes RAN parameters in response to metrics such as handover

success and ailure rates, CQI distributions, recurring cell overloading and

dropped call rates, among many others. This is a closed-loop and ongoing

optimization use case that runs in the background.


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Summary

Realizing these benets requires a comprehensive approach to ne-tune existing processes. It is thereore critical that MNOs SON

ramework oers capabilities in the our key pillars: the ability to automatically detect which optimization will have the best impact

within a given area o network; algorithms that can be leveraged and tailored to successully suggest the optimum conguration o

a network; capabilities to work in an open- or closed-loop system; and access to beore and ater dashboards to demonstrate and

conrm the realized benets and successul impact on network perormance and the optimization process.

The combination o InoVistas step-by-step SON approach, supported by a unique open scripting ramework, open collection and

reporting platorm, and extensive set o proprietary optimization algorithms enables the transormation o RAN management and

optimization practices rom manual to ully sel-automated.

World and EuropeanHeadquartersInoVista S.A.

6, rue de la Terre de Feu

91952 Courtaboeu Cedex

Les Ulis, France

Tel +33 (0) 1 64 86 79 00

Fax +33 (0) 1 64 86 79 79

Americas HeadquartersInoVista Corporation

12950 Worldgate Drive

Suite 250

Herndon, VA 20170

United States

Tel +1 703 435 2435

Fax +1 703 435 5122

Asia-Pacic HeadquartersInoVista (Asia-Pacic) Pte Ltd

Block 750C, #03-16/17

Chai Chee Road

TechnoPark @ Chai Chee

Singapore 469003

Tel +65 6449 7641

Fax +65 6449 3054

For more inormation, please visitwww.infovista.com

For sales inquiries please email:[email protected]

Copyright 2012 InoVista S.A. All rights reserved.

About InoVista

InoVista is the leading provider o service perormance assurance sotware solutions or IP-based network and application services.

We empower communication service providers and large IT enterprise organizations to transorm their IT inrastructure into a

distinctive asset or revenue generation, customer loyalty and business agility by adopting a quality centric approach to expedite

the launch o dierentiated and perorming services ahead o the competition. InoVistas unied network and application

perormance management platorm equips 80% o the worlds largest operators and a roster o global enterprises. Our solutions

provide them with the actionable visibility they need to ensure a high-quality user experience end-to-end, by eectively assuring

the perormance and quality o their converged network and IT services, while keeping operational costs as low as possible.

InoVista can be ound online at www.infovista.com .

SB InfoVista Self Optimizing Solution for Mobile Networks

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