An Experimental System for SON Function Coordination

Through the introduction of Self-Organizing Net- works (SON) into mobile networks, a potentially large number of SON functions are available. These SON functions automatically perfom management actions. There will be SON functions for many aspects of fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security (FCAPS) management. The functions are executed based on monitored network behavior, which may lead to several functions being active concurrently in the same network area. Simultaneous execution of different functions with contradicting goals may lead to oscillating function execution and service degra- dation in the worst case. Therefore, SON function coordination is indispensable for SON-enabled networks in order to align the executed SON funtions and thus assure that they take full effect (improved performance and fault handling). Coordination mechanisms need to be developed and verified before they are deployed into the network. For this purpose, an experimental sys- tem realizes SON function coordination based on flexible policy- based decisions. Coverage and Capacity Optimization (CCO) is presented as use case to demonstrate succesful coordination of multiple independent SON functions.