Integrated self-management for future radio access networks: Vision and key challenges

Future radio access networks will require new self-management solutions to handle the increasing operational complexity caused by multi-technology and multi-layer deployments. Current networks already include stand-alone SON (Self-Organizing Networks) solutions, but these are not sufficient to properly handle the networks of tomorrow. In this paper, we highlight the key challenges for such self-management solutions based on our research and extensive feedback from several major operators. Based on these challenges we present a set of relevant use cases to validate future solutions and discuss our vision for a unified management framework, which integrates the existing and future advanced SON functions across several radio access technologies. It comprises (i) an integrated SON management system, in charge of policy transformation/supervision and conflict detection/ handling; (ii) advanced multi-RAT/layer SON functions; and (iii) a Decision Support System providing measurement-based assistance for residual operational tasks, such as timely recommendations for targeted new site deployments.