A self-organizing network (SON) is an automation technology designed to make the planning, configuration, management, optimization and healing of mobile radio access networks simpler and faster. SON functionality and behavior has been defined and specified in generally accepted mobile industry recommendations produced by organizations such as 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and the NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks).
SON has been codified within 3GPP Release 8 and subsequent specifications in a series of standards including 36.902,[1] as well as public white papers outlining use cases from the NGMN.[2] The first technology making use of SON features will be Long Term Evolution (LTE), but the technology has also been retro-fitted to older radio access technologies such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The LTE specification inherently supports SON features like Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR) detection, which is the 3GPP LTE Rel. 8 flagship feature.[3]
Newly added base stations should be self-configured in line with a "plug-and-play" paradigm while all operational base stations will regularly self-optimize parameters and algorithmic behavior in response to observed network performance and radio conditions. Furthermore, self-healing mechanisms can be triggered to temporarily compensate for a detected equipment outage, while awaiting a more permanent solution.