Nokia Networks and Coriant will demonstrate intelligent self-organizing networks (SON) for mobile backhaul at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 tradeshow in Barcelona, Spain, in early March.
Nokia points out that intelligent SON solutions already automate the deployment and optimization of radio and core networks. Excluding mobile backhaul from the optimization equation creates a bottleneck, leading to sub-optimal use of network resources and degrading the end-to-end service experience.
The SON for mobile backhaul proof of concept is designed to show how advanced analytics and software defined networking (SDN) work together to create programmable, self-aware networks that assure an optimal service experience, the companies said in a press release. The same level of experience can be achieved with 20 percent less transport infrastructure than is needed in today's networks.
The self-aware network extends SDN beyond automated service provisioning to automatically reconfigure network resources based on analysis of the factors that impact customer experience and service level agreements, the companies say. By reversing the conventional paradigm--in which services must conform to the network--SON adapts the mobile backhaul network to the demands of mobile services, resulting in a better perceived Quality of Experience (QoE) because high service quality is maintained every time the user runs an application.
"This proof of concept is the first of its kind to provide a fully automated capability for self-configuration and self-optimization of multi-vendor mobile backhaul networks using SDN as the management layer," said Hossein Moiin, executive vice president and CTO at Nokia Networks, in the release. "It is a major step towards teaching networks to be self-aware and realizing our Technology Vision 2020. "It also reduces total cost of transmitting each bit by making transport networks intelligent enough to take network planning and daily operational decisions in the most cost-effective way on their own."
For the demonstration at MWC, Coriant will bring its 8600 Smart Routers and SDN controller to the party, while Nokia brings its LTE base stations and System Architecture Evolution (SAE) gateway.
In the demonstration, the network will monitor user and control plane traffic and network quality key performance indicators, then dynamically reconfigure network resources.
When asked in an Infonetics survey of global service providers last year if or when they will introduce SDN into the backhaul network, 29 percent of respondents said they were deploying or plan to deploy SDN at some point, while the majority (63 percent) were evaluating it as a possibility with no set timeframe.
For more:
- see the press release
- see this Telecompaper article
Related articles
SK Telecom teams with Nokia Networks on eICIC
Nokia's North American CTO on 5G, Wi-Fi and 'disrupting' ramifications from the cloud
Nokia Networks establishes multi-stakeholder ETSI ISG for mobile edge computing