Business Impact Assessment of Mobile Self-Organising Networks

In the context of telecommunications networks, the concept of self-organisation implies the introduction of functionalities that lead to the automation of network operational tasks and reduce the need for manual intervention, as well as the provision of DSA mechanisms and enhancement of radio resource management, improvement of QoS and QoE and reduction of OPEX. Based on the definitions of Self-Organising Networks (SONs) and self-x functionalities developed within the EU FP7 project E³, as well as on a methodology that systematically correlates technical functionalities, KPIs and business parameters, this paper intends to assess the impact of the introduction of self-x functionalities on the business of operators. In particular, it shows that self-configuration is relevant in the control of operators´ assets as well as keeping a direct relationship with the customer, while self-managing has a high impact on the decentralisation of the architecture, on the simplification of OAM tasks and efficient monitoring of the system. In addition, self-optimisation contributes to an improved QoS and to the delivery of an optimised price/quality ratio in terms of service provision. Nevertheless, important trade-offs and challenges need to be overcome: barriers for commercial development due to lack of incentives for equipment vendors, standardisation activities towards multi-vendor SON solutions and the right balance between quality of service and customer intimacy.