Ever since the industry’s early days when an army of switchboard operators manually cross-connected calls, many telecommunications advances made have been motivated by automation and productivity gains. Now, as wireless telecommunication migrates from 2G/3G networks to 4G, much of the progress derived from next-generation 4G technologies like Long Term Evolution (LTE) will come from automatic self-optimization techniques that will yield lower operating expenses (OPEX), improved call quality, and better service. Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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The concept of self-optimizing networks (SONs) is integral to 4G LTE. In a SON, basestations will be able to automatically interact with each other and with the core network to seamlessly perform a broad range of self-organizing, productivity-enhancing activities. SON is needed to reconcile the industry’s need for higher capacity and faster networks with its desire for lower costs, which in turn brings wireless services to a broader segment of the global economy. Initiatives like the TR 36.902 of the Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) and other technical documents are integral to the SON movement. Indeed, it’s expected that LTE Advanced will make significant strides toward an environment made up of SONs.

A lot is at stake for service providers. Variable operating expenses have risen significantly. In recent years, energy consumption in particular has received intense scrutiny from service providers, as it has become a larger portion of overall operating expenses every year. As recently as 2006 at the Base Station Conference, European service provider Orange acknowledged that basestation power consumption had growth of approximately 75% of its network’s total power consumption.

Self-Simplifying

Not surprisingly, wireless networks have grown more and more complex with each new advance and each new generation of technology. Unfortunately, automation within the networks themselves has not kept pace with other improvements.

As the wireless infrastructure has moved away from a voice-only network to become a hybrid voice/data network, the transmission options such as rate of transmission, time of transmission, multi-antenna options, and re-transmissions have added to the complexity of network operations. As a result, the number of employees needed to maintain a network in efficient operation has increased significantly.

Alan Gatherer is a TI Fellow and CTO of TI’s DSP Systems group, where he leads the development of multicore DSP for cellular basestations and works on various telecommunication standards. He has written multiple journal and conference papers and holds more than 60 awarded patents. Also, he is author of the book The Application of Programmable DSPs in Mobile Communications. He holds a bachelor of engineering degree in microprocessor engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland and a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University in California.

Wireless network operations such as the routine pre-operation and in-operation tests to satisfy certain grade-of-service/quality-of service (GoS/QoS) requirements for subscribers have become very labor intense. Network operators typically perform these tests by monitoring the radio frequency (RF) signals in an area or cell by driving vans with radio equipment through the area to collect the needed data. In addition, technicians sitting at consoles in a control center where the network provider’s operations administration and maintenance (OA&M) software is running monitor many operational tasks remotely.