A Perspective on Self-Optimization in Next Generation Cellular Networks

Abstract

During the past few decades wireless technology has seen a tremendous growth. The recent introduction of high-end mobile devices has further increased subscribers' demand for high bandwidth and quality of service. The number of nodes in future cellular systems will be too large to be configured and maintained manually. Further the mobility of users, the varying nature of the wireless channel and variation in user demand systems requires optimization of network parameters and delay in configuration may cause congestion and poor Quality of Service. Due to this increased complexity and the huge scale of wireless systems the network configuration, optimization and maintenance process performed by radio engineers has become inefficient and therefore, lot of research is being done to introduce self-optimizing capabilities within the network, which is expected to permit higher end user Quality of Service (QoS) and less operation cost and maintenance cost for telecom service providers. This chapter details the key aspects related to self optimization of next generation cellular networks.