Student Name:- Pankaj Chomal

Subject:- COTN

SYMBIOSI INSTITUTE OF TELECOM MANAGEMENT

MBA

Objective

Understand Self Organizing Network (SON)

Concept of Self Organizing Network (SON)

Transition from Conventional Network Operation (CNO) to

SON

Coverage and Capacity Optimization in Self Organizing

Network (SON)

Benefits of SON

What is SON ? A self-organizing Network (SON) is an automation technology

designed to make the planning, configuration, management,

optimization and healing of mobile radio access networks simpler

and faster.

The Third Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP has introduced the

concept of self-organising networks, SON into Release 8 of their

standards, and in addition to this the Next Generation Mobile

Networks, NGMN alliance introduced the concept of SON with the

aims of:

Reducing the operating cost by reducing the level of human

intervention in network design, build and operation

Reducing capital expenditure by optimising the use of

available resources

Protecting revenue by reducing the number of human errors

SON Architecture

The three SON architecture options (NMS = network management system, EMS = element management system,

OSS = operational support system).

Concept of Self Organizing Network (SON) There are three main areas over which the self-organising networks

operate.

Self configuration: The aim is for base stations to become essentially

"Plug and Play" items. They should need as little manual intervention in the

configuration process as possible. This will enable the skill level of installers

to be reduced, thereby saving costs while improving the reliability.

Accordingly this is a major element within the overall self organising

network, SON software. This is the dynamic plug-and-play configuration

of newly deployed eNBs. The eNB will by itself configure the Physical Cell

Identity, transmission frequency and power, leading to faster cell

planning and rollout.

Dynamic configuration includes the configuration of the Layer 1

identifier, Physical cell identity (PCI) and Cell global ID (CGID).

PCI reporting UE supported reporting of CGID

Concept of Self Organizing Network (SON) Self optimisation: Once the system has been set up, it will be necessary

to optimise the operational characteristics to best meet the needs of the

overall network. This is achieved by self-optimisation routines within the

overall self-organising network, SON software. Functions for self-

optimisation are mainly included in Release 9. It includes optimisation of

coverage, capacity, handover and interference.

Mobility load balancing (MLB) is a function where cells suffering

congestion can transfer load to other cells, which have spare

resources. MLB includes load reporting between eNBs to exchange

information about load level and available capacity.

Concept of Self Organizing Network (SON) Self-healing: Any system will develop faults from time to time. This can

cause major inconvenience to users, however it is often possible for the

overall network to change its characteristics to temporarily mask the

effects of the fault. Boundaries of adjacent cells can be increased by

increasing power levels and changing antenna elevations, etc. This self-

healing aspect of SON, self-organizing networks is of great interest.

Features for automatic detection and removal of failures and automatic

adjustment of parameters are mainly specified in Release 10.

Minimization of drive tests (MDT), is enabling normal UEs to provide the

same type of information as those collected in drive test. A great

advantage is that UEs can retrieve and report parameters from indoor

environments.

Transition from Conventional Network

Operation to SON

Manual Network operation of Cellular Networks

Manual Network Operation

Transition from Conventional Network

Operation to SON

Coverage and Capacity Optimization in

Self Organizing Network (SON) The Self-Organizing Network (SON), introduced as part of the 3GPP Long-Term

Evolution (LTE) is a key driver for improving Operation and Maintenance (OAM) of the mobile networks. The goal of SON is to simplify the network management by auto-configuration and auto-optimization. Optimization of coverage and capacity is one of the high-level SON use cases. This paper provides some background of SON principles and presents a model that illustrates the SON optimization of coverage and capacity. Based on input parameters, better coverage in this model is ensured by automatic adjustment of antenna tilt.

Coverage and capacity optimization (CCO) is one of the typical operational tasks of SON. CCO allows the system to periodically adjust to the changes in traffic (i.e., load and location) and the radio environment by adjusting the key radio frequency (RF) parameters (e.g., antenna configuration and power) through intelligent algorithms. For the online CCO problem, there is no definite mapping function from the inputs and parameters to be adjusted to the coverage and capacity performance. The main reason is the complexity of adjusting all the configuration parameters affecting both coverage and capacity. In addition, the configuration parameter space is too large, which prohibits exhaustive search. Thereby, most algorithms are designed in a heuristic way.

Benefits of SON

The main benefits of introducing SON functions in cellular networks are as follows.

1. Reduced installation time and costs.

2. Reduced OPEX due to reductions in manual efforts in connection with monitoring, optimizing, diagnosing, and healing of the network.

3. Reduced CAPEX due to more optimized use of network elements and spectrum.

4. Improved user experience.

5. Improved network performance.

The main features that are important for an operator concerning SON:

a. timing of introduction of SON functions,

b. possible savings,

c. QoS and performance improvements, and

d. coordination between SON functions