SON in LTE
SON is a certain set of features defined as use cases in 3GPP and applied for LTE.
The feature sets, dependent on 3GPP releases (e.g. 8 or 9) are expected to benefit Operators by transforming possible network management operations into automatic executable software procedures, hence resulting in substantial savings in OPEX.
Automation is not a new concept for wireless networks, although with LTE this will prove to be more efficient, enabling the extensive use of automated processes. Thus, the appearance of SON algorithms represents a continuation of the natural evolution of wireless networks, where automated processes are simply extending their scope deeper
into the network.
SON features are distributed to eNB and EPC, and include Self Configuration, Self Optimization and
Self Healing features.
