Self-Organizing Networks: Self-Planning, Self-Optimization and Self-Healing for GSM, UMTS and LTE

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Multi-Technology Self-Optimization

Juan Ramiro, Rubén Cruz, Juan Carlos del Río, Miguel A. Regueira Caumel, Carlos Úbeda, Szymon Stefański, Andreas Lobinger, Juanjo Guerrero, Salvador Pedraza, José Outes, Josko Zec and Khalid Hamied

5.1. Self-Optimization Requirements for 2G, 3G and LTE

Self-Optimization is defined as the utilization of measurements and performance indicators collected by the User Equipments (UEs) and the base stations in order to auto-tune the network settings. This process is performed in the operational state, which is defined as the state where the Radio Frequency (RF) interface is commercially active (i.e. when the cell is neither barred nor reserved). Ideally, Self-Optimization solutions should portray the following characteristics:

• Measurement-based. Network adjustments based on theoretical propagation prediction models should be replaced with decisions driven by network statistics in order to take into account the real system status in terms of propagation environment, indoor penetration losses, traffic profile and spatial distribution of the users.
• Sector- and adjacency-based. Experience has shown that homogeneous network configurations are in general suboptimal, and therefore require optimization at the finest possible resolution, i.e. at sector or even adjacency level.
• Multi-vendor. Able to: (i) access and interpret the performance statistics that are provided by each vendor; (ii) derive qualified adjustments of vendor-specific parameters; and ...