Cisco Confidential 2013Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 1Cisco-SON Suitev5.5Salvador !arra 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2Give a brief description of Cisco-SON Suite 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 3With radio networks like those used for LTE and other cellular technologies becoming more complex,network planning needs to be made easier: planning, configuration, management, optimisation andhealing all need to be automated to bring improvements.As a result the concept of self-organising networks, SON is growing in interest and use. With the networksthemselves being able to monitor performance, they can optimise themselves to be able to provide theoptimum performance.By using self-organising networks, SON technology, networks are able to organise and optimise theirperformance. Operators can then benefit from significant improvements in terms of both CAPEX, capitalexpenditure and later OPEX, operational expenditure.The concept of the Self-Organizing Network (SON) was first described in Release 8 of the 3rd GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) technical specifications for UTRAN-based LTE systems, in December 2008.Self Organizing Networks could be sub-divided on: Self-configuring networks Self-optimizing networks Self-healing networks 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 4The Cisco SON Suite Automatic Neighbor Relations for UMTS Macro Cells (henceforth ANR) is a self-optimization application responsible for building and maintaining an optimal neighbor list for each cellwithin the operating range. The ANR is a powerful tool to lower the rate of dropped data sessions andvoice calls, improve the RF quality in a cell area and maximize the utilization of RAN resources. ANRoperates automatically, dynamically, and autonomously to build and maintain the most accurateneighbor list for each cell within the operating range.The UMTS ANR application comprises the following self-optimization modules: Intra-frequency Neighbor Management Priorities Management Clean Sweep removing unused cells from the neighbor list to save resources Crisis Mode using more aggressive policies in cases identified as requiring drastic action.ANR identifies missing or redundant neighbors and automatically reconfigures optimal neighbor listsaccording to actual current conditions. Addressing Intra (within a UMTS carrier) neighbor scenarios,ANR constantly calculates the optimal neighbor lists per cell and service area, sorted by priority, andimplements them automatically without user intervention.ANR uses Ciscos unique network visibility capability to check the weight of the resulting relationsand determine which neighbor relations work, and which do not. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 5The ANR Inter-U module creates and maintains optimal neighbor relations between cells of differentcarrier frequencies. ANR Inter-U operates at every Snapshot Interval and removes any relations thatviolate the LMS and creates new relations according to the LMS. The updated neighbor lists are writtento the OSS.ANR Inter-U will only operate on cells whose state is "Up". During the synchronization with the OSS,the system retrieves the configured state of each cell (Locked/Unlocked, Reserved/Unreserved). A cell isconsidered as "Up" if it is "Unlocked" and if it has KPIs from at least 90% of the time in the last hour."Unreserved" cells will be worked on, unless the Consider Cell Reserved as Down parameter is enabled.In addition, ANR Inter-U will not operate on a cell if: ANR Inter-U is not enabled, or SON is blocked for this cell The cell is down The cell is missing any of the following information: UARFCNDL Location ID Azimuth Latitude Longitude The cell does not have an LMS associated The number of cells in the same location is over the limit set by the Number of cells in location limitparameter The cell is in a location where there are both Omni/Indoor cells as well as Macro cells The cell's frequency is not part of its LMS configuration. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 6When adding new cells to the RAN, Plug & Play creates a complete neighbor list for the new sitesbased on the configured physical distance around the current cell and the azimuth of the neighboringcells (using the same logic as mentioned in the ANR process Matching cell ID to scrambling code).This initial neighbor list gives the cell an initial group of adjacent cells for handover from day one.Further optimization of the neighbor list will be done by the Inter-frequency and Intra-frequencyneighbor relations modules of the ANR when the site goes live.By default, a new cell is configured to be activated for all applications except MEH-U.If the APO-U application is set to OFF, the operational state of a new cell will automatically changefrom "New" to "Exist" to enable the various applications to work on it. This is the only case in whichAPO-U will not work on a cell. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 7The SON Load Balancing application provides a near-real time response to the rapidly changing andunpredictable load demands on the network. The Load Balancing application modifies the RF footprintof the loaded and surrounding cells in real time to fit the current usage demand and match thesubscriber distribution to the available resources. Using RF shaping increases the efficiency of thenetwork, and increases the utilization of existing resources.Enforcing operator policies and defined thresholds, Load Balancing monitors cell resource utilizationand dynamically adjusts cell parameters to ensure optimal load balancing of resources and trafficdistribution across the available carriers and cells within the area. The application resolves celloverloads and congestion, maximizes equipment utilization and performance, and increases availabilityof network resources and subscriber quality of service.The Load Balancing module deals with the following types of radio resource loading, in both load andadmission rejections: l Codes - codes overload on the cell. l Total Power - Approaching the cells power limit l HS Power - Approaching the cells HS power limit l Non-HS Power - Approaching the cell's power limit reserved for non-HS traffic l Hardware - Reaching the licensing limit of the RBS 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 8When a cell goes down for whatever reason, a hole is created in the RAN coverage. Such a hole createsincreased DCR and loss of traffic, affecting the customers' QoE.Cisco's DSH-U automatically detects cell outages in the network, finds the cells that are best suited tocompensate for these outages and up-tilts their antenna in order to increase their footprint and close thecoverage holes. When the outage is over, the antenna of the compensating cell is automatically revertedto its original tilt.RF shaping is a general term to changing the footprint of a cell, or the way it is perceived by UEs inthe area. The RF footprint affects the cell selection of the UEs in cases of overlap, and to impact thephysical coverage area.The Cisco SON solution modifies the following RF and selection related parameters to change the cellfootprint:l Tilt - changes the direction the antenna's RF is aimed at, and can be mechanical or not (changes thephase between the antennas in the array).This change requires the hardware to support RET (RemoteElectrical Tilt). Tilt changes affect the area and shape of the cell footprint. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 9GSM networks are widely deployed and their coverage, in many cases, is superior to UMTS coverage.Many operators view their GSM network as a safety net for calls, primarily voice, where UMTScoverage is not complete or where the economic viability for 3G services is low. In such areas, smoothhandover from the UMTS network to the GSM network is vital to keep service retainability andcustomer satisfaction from voice quality of service.Handover from the UMTS to the GSM network can occur when: The UMTS network is loaded The UMTS network coverage is too lowThe Automatic UMTS-GSM Relations (henceforth AUGR-U) is a self-optimization applicationresponsible for building and maintaining an optimal UMTS to GSM relations list for each UMTS cellin the network. AUGR-U takes into account changes in RF conditions, new added cells, outages, andother phenomena affecting network behavior.The AUGR solution comprises the following self-optimization modules: New UMTS Cell Organization for first time population of the GSM neighbor list in the UMTScells Dynamic GSM Neighbor Optimization - optimization of the existing GSM neighbor relations in theUMTS cells' neighbor listsNote: AUGR-U creates and optimizes unidirectional GSM Neighbor relations, i.e. from UMTSto GSM only. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 10One of the main challenges that operators face with deployed networks is interference stemming fromwithin the network from overshooting cells. These interferences can be found manually through timeconsumingoperations such as sifting through KPI and trace files and conducting drive tests. After theinterferences are detected, RF design, field changes and multiple test drives are required to ensure thatthe interference source has been eliminated. Intucell's Cisco SON DIM-U automatically detects theproblematic cells and dynamically reduces the interferences caused by them.Overshooting cells (boomers - also referred to as Potential Interfering Cells (PICs)) are strong cells thatradiate beyond their intended coverage area (beyond their farthest neighbor), often completelyoverlapping other cells. Overshooting cells create interference in the affected cells and cause high calldrop rates. A single overshooting cell can impact dozens of other cells, so that even a small reduction ininterference level can have a significant overall impact on the network, improving overall RANefficiency and KPIs.The following RF shaping technique is used to overcome the problem of interference caused byovershooting cells:l Down Tilting (requires RET): changing the tilt of the overshooting cell causes the cell to coverfewer UEs and transmit a lower downlink power. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 11The CCO-U application handles coverage holes and areas with bad RF performance - areas that sufferfrom insufficient coverage.A fundamental task in cellular radio network engineering is designing the network to fit the coverageand capacity requirements imposed by the business strategy of the operator.The scope of this feature as intended by 3GPP is adjustment of the RF parameters in a sector, includingantenna configuration and power, to maximize coverage and capacity.Coverage holes are created by cells that radiate less to than their intended coverage area (do not reachtheir closest neighbor) in one or more directions. Coverage holes cause high call drop rates and increasethe noise as UEs try to communicate with cells further away. Resolving coverage holes can have asignificant overall impact on the network, improving overall RAN efficiency, user experience, and KPIsThe CCO-U uses uptilting as a means of RF shaping to fill coverage holes, where possible.Increasing the tilt (requires RET) causes the cell to cover a larger number of UEs.The CCO-U runs fully automatically, following the SON cycle: Snapshot, Action, Feedback - run forevery KPI file read by the system.About Coverage HolesThe CCO-U application deals with capacity holes created by lack of coverage. These are detected as ahigh concentration of disconnects in areas with low RSCP.In this case, it is possible to change the RF footprint of the leading cell covering the area in a way thatwill increase the signal in that area. This can be done by uptilting the antenna (in future versions itmight include increasing the CPICH of the antenna as well).These changes are performed only in areas where the change is not expected to have a negative impacton other UEs in the coverage area, and without affecting the quality of surrounding cells.After performing the RF footprint change, 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 12Goal of the ISHO-UThe ISHO application aims to reduce the Inter System Hard Handover from 3G to 2G withoutdegrading (or through acceptable degradation of) the main UMTS KPIs, according to the operatorpolicies.The goal is to reduce the number of CS and PS IRAT handovers from the UMTS- to GSM (ISHO) tokeep more traffic on UMTS.Higher traffic capacity and better users' QoE is expected to be obtained on the 3G network.Improvement may vary from one cell to another as a function of the EcIo & RSCP distribution in thecell.The main incentive for this application is refarming of existing GSM cells and spectrum, in favor ofUMTS and LTE.Expected results: Less traffic transferred from the 3G network, to 2G network. Reduced ISHO rate per call. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 13Large gatherings of users, such as football games or outdoor concerts create large volume of traffic in asmall area, with major changes in traffic on the scale of minutes. Rapid changes to traffic occur at timessuch as kick-off, half time, goals, etc. The behavior of subscribers during such events is different too,generating a higher demand on data than the average usage. The challenge of controlling performancein a restricted area while servicing a large body of subscribers, faces problems in accessibility, and highadmission rejection rates. These could lead to anything from slight degradation to total meltdown ofthe cells or zones.The Cisco SON Mass Event Handling (MEH-U) application provides a near-real time response to theunpredictable load challenges on the network using carrier re-selection to balance the most congestedradio resource across all the different carriers. Enforcing operator policies and defined thresholds, theNodeB carriers' resource utilization are constantly monitored and cell parameters are dynamicallyadjusted to ensure optimal load balancing of resources and traffic distribution across the availablecarriers. Cisco SON resolves cell overloads and congestions, maximizes equipment utilization andperformance, and increases availability of network resources and subscriber quality of service.MEH-U analyzes the load on the cells in the event venue every 10 seconds. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 14As traffic builds in specific areas in the network, NodeB carriers may be loaded unevenly as somecarriers become loaded more than the others within the same NodeB. This may result in deniedaccessibility and, in extreme cases, also in call drops, although some of the NodeB carriers may remainunder-utilized.The Cisco SON Inter Carrier Load Balancing (ICLB-U) application provides a near-real time response tothe unpredictable load challenges on the network using carrier re-selection to balance the mostcongested radio resource across all the different carriers. Enforcing operator policies and definedthresholds, the NodeB carriers' resource utilization are constantly monitored and cell parameters aredynamically adjusted to ensure optimal load balancing of resources and traffic distribution across theavailable carriers. Cisco SON resolves cell overloads and congestions, maximizes equipment utilizationand performance, and increases availability of network resources and subscriber quality of service.ICLB-U analyzes the load on the cells in the network every 15 minutes.The application follows these general stages: Snapshot: Analyzes the KPIs of all the faces (every 15 minutes) to determine which faces to work on. Decides what action to take based on Code and Power loads calculations Action - sends the commands to the OSS After 5 KPI cycles of no load, the changes are restored to their default values.Note: The system includes a safety mechanism that checks the change in the Qoffset2sn value,relative to its original value. The system will not allow to change the value beyond theset threshold. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 15The main cause of degradation in service accessibility in LTE during loaded periods is the number ofsubscribers concurrently connected to the LTE cell. Unlike UMTS, LTE standards allow for subscribers tobe connected to the cell even if the service is not fully active. This causes services rejections to increaseand accessibility to drop.The Cisco SON Suite Inter-RAT Load Balancing for LTE (IRLB-L) is a near real-time SON application thatanalyzes the load on the 4G LTE cells and changes the idle mode reselection thresholds to steer UEs tothe 3G UMTS network. Its goals are to improve service accessibility and retainability in LTE withoutcausing performance degradation in the UMTS layer.The application operates on very fast cycles. Every 10-20 seconds the load of the LTE cells ismonitored, and if the thresholds are crossed, the application changes the idle mode reselectionthresholds (ThreshServingLow and SInterRatSearch) in order to steer UEs to the UMTS.The ThreshHigh parameter of the co-located UMTS cells is also changed to prevent UEs from steeringback to the 4G LTE network. When the load drops below the set threshold, the UEs are steered back tothe LTE network. 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 16Small cells are low-powered wireless access points that typically operate in a licensed spectrum,providing enhanced cellular coverage, capacity and applications. They are increasingly seen as analternative for capacity expansion amid the data crunch challenge operators face today. Small cellsincrease base station density and ease the overload on macrocells, while providing additional capacityand improving the signal to noise ratio.The Cisco SON Suite solution for HetNets comprises the following applications that enable seamlessintroduction of small cells to the network and mobility between the macro and the small cell layers:l HANR-U - Creates and maintains neighbor relations to allow reselection and handover between themacro cells and the small cells in the areal HSCO-U - Dynamically optimizes PSC allocationThe small cells are classified into "Active Entry APs" (a.k.a. "gateway" cells) that interact with themacrocells, and "inner grid" APs/cells which do not. The Active Entry APs are used for the "hand in"process - handing the call over from the macro network to the small cell grid.Vendor SupportThe Cisco SON Suite for Small Cell HetNets supports the following equipment vendors:l Macro: Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), NSN, and Huaweil Small cells:o Cisco - fully supported by SON 5.5 and later (see HetNets with Cisco Only Small Cells below)o Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) - requires a dedicated SON server for small cells (Small Cells ExternalServer, SCES) in conjunction with SON 5.x 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 17APO-L identifies new cells added to the network, and creates the inter-technology (iRAT) relationsbetween LTE and UMTS cells, to allow optimal iRAT handover where required. The application createsthe relations according to policy parameters per market, RNC and cell. The application speeds up thedeployment allowing minimum errors followed by a periodic configuration validity verification.The APO-L application configures the different parameters of the cells both for the LTE and the UMTSside. The configuration is based on customer policy and local existence of iRAT.In order for UEs to make a smooth transition between LTE and UMTS networks, each LTE cell has tomaintain an updated list of selection criteria for nearby UMTS cells, and each UMTS cell has tomaintain an updated list of selection criteria for nearby LTE cells.In an optimal process, the UEs evaluate the suggested network based on power and quality and performan intelligent decision of reselection. Today UEs do not support this parallel check. UEs perform "blindredirection" to the specified high priority UMTS frequency. This blind redirection may result in drops ifthe LTE does not have an updated picture of the current UMTS coverage. In case of a UMTS cell down,or if a new UMTS carrier has been deployed, for example, the local relationship should be updatedaccordingly.Also, it is a major operational challenge to maintain updated mutual configurations of the 3G LTEset of parameters for each cell, and in operators deploying LTE, many inconsistencies remain, leading tohigh iRAT failure rates..Cisco's cSON simultaneously connects to multi-technology and multi-vendor networks, and ensures thatall the 3G -> LTE and LTE -> 3G parameters are constantly updated according to the network in placeand operator gold policies."han# $ou.