UTRAN O&M support system with statistical fault identification and customizable rule sets

With the proliferation of mobile-network services, mobile networks have become one of the core social infrastructures and are therefore required to operate stably. Conventional mobile-network-management systems can detect and recover from faults according to previously formulated rules. However, such semi-static rules are vulnerable to large variation in quality of networks and to sudden increases in traffic, which are inherent to radio access networks. Maintenance personnel often had to perform case-by-case analyses for the vast numbers of abnormal cases and such analyses and creation of rules may have taken more time when new faults appeared. In addition, providing network elements timely is essential to maintaining network quality but it is becoming more difficult as mobile networks become larger and more complicated. To overcome these problems, we have developed a system that enhances the conventional UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) management system of mobile networks and improves stability during network operation. In this paper, we present main features of the system and its fundamental technologies: fault detection based on statistical reliability, root-cause analysis of the fault, a rule editor easy to create and modify fault-analysis rules for maintenance personnel, and guidance on expansion based on long-term analysis of trends. We tested this system then confirmed it could reduce fault-detection errors in a conventional management system through theoretical calculations and trials in a cellular mobile network.