SON growing up rapidly as an essential enabler of the HetNet

The dense HetNet has been a topic of debate and slideware for so long, but it is now becoming a reality, as operators’ need for affordable capacity and new revenue streams reach the point of urgency, even a matter of survival. One of the absolutely essential enablers of a network of huge numbers of cells, in different spectrum bands and form factors, is automation. Planning, management and optimization of all those access points cannot be done manually, especially when operators want to respond to individual user service requirements or network issues in near-real time to improve quality of experience. The availability of a broad range of SON (self-optimizing network) tools, services and functions will drive new HetNet deployments, just as…