Telcos have unique opportunity to implement SON in 3G

As demand for wireless access to internet and internet-based services increases, competitive advantage in the mobile business can be gained by offering enhanced user experience through cost-effective broadband mobile access.

Very stiff competition means that operators have to not only provide quality service, but will also have to reduce cost of operation and maintenance (O&M). The self organising network (SON) is a key driver for improving O&M.

While the rest of the world implemented 3G and 2G in the old fashioned way - by manually configuring, operating, and optimising. Indian operators can implement self organising network architecture which takes care of these manual tasks automatically, reducing cost and improving network performance at the installation stage, thereby making full use of the potential.

Though efforts to create a self-optimising network have been underway for years, a 2006 decision by the Next Generation Mobile Networks alliance (NGMN) was instrumental in driving its development. NGMN singled out SON as a key design principle for the next-generation mobile network, and published a specifications paper in 2008.

SON is often associated with LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology as it was introduced by the 3GPP in its December 2008 Release 8, while it drafted LTE specifications. Incidentally, WiMax also has SON standards in place.

But chances are that LTE or WiMax will rarely be deployed in greenfield environments. So, to make the most of SON's potential, its capacity must be extended to encompass legacy equipment and technology. And since we are yet to deploy 3G networks, Indian operators have a unique opportunity as they can deploy SON without much additional cost.
Business case

SON can remarkably improve user experience by optimising the network more rapidly and mitigating outages as they occur. These are very important capabilities because time-to-operation and time-to-repair are critical factors for network operators.

A case in point is SON's ability to balance loads (also called capacity-based optimization) between cells in congested traffic. It can distribute bandwidth equitably among users and minimise overloads that deprive each user of bandwidth. Best of all, SON-driven load-balancing achieves such improvements in real time.

SON delivers operating benefits throughout the network's lifespan. Beyond the upfront benefits of faster, easier, and more cost-effective installation and commissioning, it continues yielding long term savings and contributes considerably to greater overall network efficiency.

Surging loads in packet networks attest to changing traffic patterns and the shift away from voice towards data. Now, anything goes, anytime and anywhere.

A network's ability to heal itself can compensate for major outages. SON responds quickly, minimising outage time and tasking neighboring cells to cover much of the affected area.

Earlier, such an outage meant total failure pending on-site repair. Tomorrow it will constitute little more than a slight service downgrade, followed by far faster recovery and far fewer user complaints.

The radio access network accounts for a lion's share of elements and expenses, so initially SON self-configuration focuses on the RAN (Radio Access Network) in general and on base stations (BTS) in particular.

SON also offers installation and commissioning exercises with plug and play convenience. Automated and autonomous routines handle typical setup chores such as connecting the OSS and network, downloading site-specific software, and applying configuration parameters.

According to an analysis by IEEE, about 17 per cent of wireless operators' CAPEX is spent on engineering and installation services. SON's self-configuring functions are expected to eliminate many on-site operations for basic setup and subsequent updates of network equipment, and thus reduce CAPEX.

About 24 per cent of a typical wireless operator's revenue goes to network OPEX, which is the cost of network operation and maintenance, training and support, power, transmission, and site rental. SON's self-optimising functions reduce workload for site survey and analysis of network performances, and thus reduce OPEX.