Efficient, Dynamic Coordination of Request Batches in C-SON Systems

Self-Organizing Mobile Networks contain a potentially large number of SON function instances that need to be coordinated in order to achieve system-level operational goals. Many SON functions (and thus their coordination) will be realized in a centralized way (C-SON) due to the required integration with a (centralized) legacy OAM system. In such systems, many configuration requests ("batches") are treated in regular time intervals For SON functions, this may lead to undesired effects (monopolization by high priority functions and frequent rollbacks of configuration actions). This paper proposes a novel coordination approach combining an output buffer of pending configuration requests with dynamic priorities for different SON function types. A simulated network scenario exhibiting a specific optimization problem (closure of a coverage hole) is used to evaluate the proposed method. The method is able to avoid the undesired effects and approximate legacy workflows in network optimization while still keeping the autonomous characteristic of SON functions.