Frequently Asked Questions
Self-organizing network
The World’s Self Organizing Network market size is getting bigger. There are major SON solution providers and Innovile is one of the leading vendors.
Technological investments in 5G and 4G networks increased demand for smartphones and computers. Communication needs tremendously increased and it also affected wireless connectivity. High penetration of internet services and connected devices created more complex networks by increasing the number of small cells. Self-Organizing Network solution helps MNOs to pinpoint network faults and automatically correct the mistakes and decreases OPEX and CAPEX costs, reduces the number of drop calls, increases throughputs and network capacity. Complex network environment enlarged the Global Self-Organizing network market, and is expected to reach USD 15087.29 million by 2029, registering a CAGR of 13.30% during the forecast period of 2022-2029. Innovile is one of the biggest market players in the global Self-organizing network with the largest SON deployment.
Mobile Network Operators have zero-carbon targets for a livable future and sustainable development. Solutions like a Self-Organizing Network can help significantly reduce energy consumption through its Energy Saving (ES) module by utilizing historic data to predict usage and adjust or suspend cells/carriers to save energy. Innovile targets 5% energy savings with its’ Zero-Touch Network Automation and AI algorithms features.
The Self-Organizing Network (SON) solution is tailored to meet the specific requirements of USA Cellular Network Operators, particularly as they embrace advanced 5G technology. SON helps operators by:
- Optimizing Network Performance: SON continually optimizes 5G network parameters to ensure fast, reliable, and low-latency connections.
- Dynamic Resource Allocation: It efficiently manages network resources, adapting to the demands of various applications and devices.
- Improved Coverage: SON enhances 5G coverage, even in challenging environments, by adjusting antenna configurations and power levels.
- Cost Savings: Automation reduces operational costs while efficiently managing large-scale 5G deployments.
- Rapid Issue Resolution: SON detects and resolves network issues proactively, maintaining a high-quality user experience.
- User Experience: It ensures a seamless 5G experience by optimizing resources and minimizing disruptions.
- Compliance and Security: SON assists operators in meeting local regulations and maintaining network security.
- Scalability: SON scales efficiently to accommodate the growth of 5G networks.
In essence, SON empowers USA Cellular Network Operators to deliver the full potential of 5G technology, optimizing performance, reducing costs, and ensuring compliance and security in their networks.
To learn more about how this innovative solution addresses the unique challenges and needs of US operators, please explore our in-depth article: Unlock Unprecedented Network Efficiency with the Revolutionary SON Solution for US Mobile Operators. This resource provides a comprehensive overview of the advantages and features that make this SON solution a game-changer for cellular network operators in the USA.
The Automatic Performance Reports module is a cornerstone of network performance monitoring. It provides comprehensive analyses of network metrics within SON solution, empowering operators to identify trends, pinpoint issues, and plan improvements. By facilitating better network efficiency and overall optimization, this module proves to be an invaluable tool for network operators.
Network performance monitoring is crucial for improving the efficiency of SON networks. It provides real-time data and insights that enable proactive adjustments and immediate issue resolution, maintaining optimal network conditions and ensuring effective self-organizing network management.
Network Configuration Management
Network Configuration Management Software is a multi-vendor/multi-technology network configuration and change management system. It handles the frequency-code planning and configuration checks/errors with operation support functions and brings significant efficiency and effectiveness gains across processes, quality, and performance at transmission, core, and access domain levels.
An automated Network Configuration Management System empowers NOCs’ planning and optimization teams to manage integrations, parameter changes, and inconsistencies in the entire network from a single platform. Configuration management in telecom specifically makes it easier for network engineers to add new inventory to the network, with the system collecting parameter data and automatically configuring new inventory correctly.
The benefits of mobile network configuration management are:
- Generates Instant Inconsistency Reports
- Creates Daily Health Check Reports
- Reduces Network Operating Costs
- Easy Tracking of the History Parameter Changes
- Performs Planning and Integration of the New Nodes
Telecom Network Configuration Management system provides consistency and integrity by:
- eliminating operational mistakes,
- preventing unnecessary service interruptions,
- reducing planned outage durations,
- increasing network quality by bringing standardization on parameters and configurations,
- customizing regional settings,
- eliminating improper definitions,
- providing agility and simplicity by reducing preparation and implementation time/delay,
- enabling planning and optimization staff to make small modifications for their requests,
- increased security by tracking changes,
- allowing profile, user, and region-based authorization, and
- reducing business continuity risks.
Fault management
The mobile telecom network fault management system continuously monitors network-wide alarms, leveraging a correlation engine to provide root cause analysis and generate actionable reports. The core capabilities are to detect, isolate, notify, and correct faults encountered in the network, functions it achieves through an integrated modular architecture.
Increasingly complex networks, multiple vendors and technologies, and unprecedented network demands create an environment prone to errors and inconsistencies. Network fault management solutions lie at the heart of NOC’s network troubleshooting arsenal in identifying and remedying issues to boost network quality and enhance the end-user experience.
There are two types of alarm monitoring systems, passive and active. Passive monitoring detects the problem occurring by receiving alarms from devices, and interworking with commonly used trouble ticketing platforms. On the other hand, active monitoring is interfaced directly with vendor network elements and OSS systems to receive active use and alarm data directly from the source in real-time or near-real-time intervals.
Network Fault Management system processes are:
- Fault Detection
- Fault diagnosis and isolation
- Fault Correlation
- Fault Correction
- Fault Notification
- Fault Resolution
- Creation of incidents and tickets
Customer experience and Quality of Experience (QoE) are increasingly prominent KPIs as MNOs battle it out with competitors for subscribers. Network fault management solutions that enhance the isolation, identification, classification, and resolution of alarms faster and more efficiently are critical for network overall performance.
Performance management
Telecom network performance management solution monitors and manages the entire telecom domain, including Core, Transport, and Access network layers. It provides comprehensive reporting and thematic dashboards that generate real-time and proactive KPI views, which drive actionable insights to achieve targeted performance metrics.
An automated vendor and technology-agnostic network performance management platform streamline network metric processing and monitoring. Using custom reports, thematic views, and feature-rich dashboards turns enormous amounts of fault and configuration data into simplified performance insights that inform data-driven strategic network investment decisions.
The key benefits of network performance management systems are:
- KPI Anomaly Detection
- Thematic Views
- FM and CM Correlation
- Parser Infrastructure
- Simple Reporting
- Geographical Information
- Easy to Use
- Save Time
- Scalable, Modular Architecture
The most common telecom network performance management issues are:
- Complex Networks and Organizations
- Evolving Customer Demands
- Increased Competition for Users
- Future Readiness
Telecom network performance management software provides automated, comprehensive visualization, analysis, and reporting capabilities that work out of the box in multi-vendor and multi-technology scenarios. Quality assurance (QA) teams will benefit from its ease of use and simple reporting structure that saves time when processing millions of data points across thousands of sites, significantly reducing QA engineers’ workload while shortening MttR and boosting overall network performance.
Network performance monitoring is the process of measuring, visualizing, monitoring, diagnosing, optimizing, and reporting the service quality of the network to monitor network performance, measure customer satisfaction, and prevent customer churn.
5G
Self-Organizing Network (SON) provides advanced features and modules for 5G network optimization automation including Automatic Neighbor Relation, Code Optimization, Configuration Consistency Audit and Correction, Self-Healing, and Coverage and Capacity Optimization, among others.
- Reduced 5G equipment installation time and costs.
- Reduced OPEX related to 5G network monitoring, optimizing, diagnosing, and healing.
- Reduced CAPEX because of better-optimized use of 5G network elements and spectrum.
- Improved ROX (Return on Experience) internally and with customers.
- Improved 5G network performance due to automated ML self-healing capabilities.
- Improved ROI on network operations because of better network performance.
The 5G Standalone (5G SA) is the 5G NR Network which uses a 5G core for managing connectivity, mobility, and user authentication. The benefits of 5G SA are:
- Lower network latency
- Better network slicing
- Massive IoT connectivity
- Carrier aggregation is possible
- Expanded device support
- Multiple connections for 5G enterprise solutions
5G non-standalone (NSA) network uses 4G LTE core network to manage 5G NR. 5G NSA provides faster rollout, increases utilization of existing assets, and reduces the cost of 5G. However, it is not as fast as 5G SA.
Configuration Management assures 5G and IoT service reliability by providing input data from modeling and understanding traffic growth and trends.
Configuration management improves 5G networks with predictive analysis, including building propagation models and analyzing density and patterns of traffic.
Automation & Zero Touch Network
An autonomous network configures, troubleshoots, heals, and optimizes itself using AI and ML. Truly autonomous networks are complicated, dynamic, and autonomous, requiring no human intervention across critical functions like execution, awareness, analysis, decision, and intent/experience.
Network automation introduces zero-touch network management capabilities into a network using advanced AI and ML-driven network management technologies.
Zero-touch automation operationalizes automated network orchestration workflows, replacing all manual network management touchpoints with AI/ML processes. Once implemented, zero-touch automation can execute hours of network management tasks in just minutes, error-free.
The key features of network automation are:
- Self-Provisioning
- Self-Organizing
- Self-Healing
- Self-Optimizing
Zero-touch Network automation empowers NOCs to achieve better outcomes with limited engineering resources. Simplification and automation of crucial network management processes like configuration, fault, and performance management reduce the direct involvement of NOC engineers, increasing network orchestration efficiency and accuracy.
Increased network autonomy, AI/ML-driven processes, and faster MttR are core requirements for MNOs rolling out 5G networks. Anticipated challenges include enhanced network management requirements, and greater demand to deliver ultra-low latency and high reliability while resolving network issues faster.
Open Ran Network
The Open RAN (O-RAN) network concept developed as a natural evolution of a traditional Radio Access Network (RAN) in the context of emerging Software Defined Networking (SDN), cloud computing technologies, and 5G networks. Open RAN provides design and operability standards that enable vendor-neutral network architectures. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) can combine suppliers based on specific needs with the assurance of interoperability between network elements. Open RAN also introduces improved automation to core network functions.
Innovile solutions cater to Open RAN architectures and help to simplify and optimize network design, planning, deployment, and operations.
Network orchestration is the process of arranging and actioning necessary tasks to set up and operate a mobile network. There are usually many complex activities and parameters that need attention for a network to function. A network controller or network management system will often be deployed to simplify and automate network orchestration.
Innovile’s Zero-touch Network Automation suite provides the software to enable automated or hybrid-manual network orchestration across vendors and technologies.
MNOs use big data analytics to perform better network optimization, perform predictive analysis by AI algorithms, analyze and determine customer-impacting problems, attract new customers, prevent fraud, create better pricing strategies, and establish network automation.
Innovile develops important network management and optimization solutions to help MNOs simplify and provide data-driven insights into their networks.
SON is a set of components and functions that automate network configuration, performance optimization, fault diagnostics, and self-healing of mobile telecoms/cellular networks at the macro-and micro-level. Self-Organizing Network (SON) can power crucial network operation functions, including ANR (Automatic Neighbor Relation), CAC (Consistency Audit and Correction), CCO (Coverage and Capacity Optimization), and BCCH, PSC, and PSI optimization.
INNTELLIGENT SON forms the basis of the Innovile Zero-touch Network Automation suite.
Mobile network design and planning is the process of concept, sizing, design, implementation, and testing to assure network functions to the required cost, coverage, and performance standards. It designs and creates the infrastructure needed to operate.
Innovile provides a full-service portfolio as consulting or managed services models to lead or support mobile network planning.
An operations support system (OSS) is software that enables a Mobile Network Operator to monitor, control, analyze and manage services in its network. Innovile provides multi-vendor, multi-technology network performance and optimization services to help manage OSS systems of MNOs’ efficiently.
Network Performance Management combines data from network elements and monitoring tools, intelligently normalizing, deduplicating, filtering, and correlating data, alerts, and events to generate meaningful views, reducing event noise by up to 99%. Good network performance management tools, like INNSIGHT, also provide options to automate remedial actions.
TELECOM NETWORK SERVICES
SQM is the process of ensuring targeted quality in the delivery of telecommunications services to customers. A total SQM encompasses all aspects of the customer journey including network, billing, customer care, and so on. Collectively, SQM components assure better customer experience and, therefore, loyalty.
Innovile supports SQM with software and services to ensure excellent network quality and performance.
Telecom network quality assurance is a subset of Service Quality Management (SQM) and focuses on maintaining network performance quality to improve customer experience and satisfaction. Quality Assurance helps MNOs deliver better network performance through targeted improvement and optimization initiatives, for example by reducing dropped-call rates, and improving data speeds, coverage, and connection quality.
Innovile’s consulting expertise is available to plan and optimize network assurance. Our software helps to automate many of the necessary improvements, for example, INNSIGHT Network Performance Management together with INNSPIRE Network Configuration Management ensured MNOs achieve excellent Quality Assurance performance metrics.
Digital transformation in telecommunications usually means realizing structural and digital technology changes across the business. These changes are typically aimed at improving service and reducing costs, and may include:
- virtualized network and cloud technology IT infrastructure optimized use of APIs for component connectivity, enabling technology to remain dynamic
- planning and implementing Open-RAN architectures to assure optimized quality and cost
- maximum automation of network and customer journey interfaces
- offering a portfolio of digital services to consumer and business customers
- adopting and enhancing direct and indirect digital channels for sales, service, and self-care
- focus on data insights as a primary tool in understanding and addressing customer, market, and operational needs
- Innovile helps MNOs to digitally transform their networks with open API platforms, cloud infrastructure, multi-vendor, multi-technology network optimization, and orchestration software and services to achieve MNOs’ performance targets.
MNOs need to digitally transform their businesses to gain benefits in four core areas:
- Advancing Customer Experience (CX)
- Reaching Data-Driven insights
- Providing network automation
- Creating an agile network
- Innovile is the one-stop solution provider for MNOs to orchestrate complex networks with our zero-touch network automation suite of products INNTELLIGENT Self-Organizing Network
INNSPIRE Telecom Network Configuration Management, INNSIGHT Mobile Network Performance Monitoring and Management, and INNSPECT Telecom Network Fault Management software. Let us help you digitally transform your network.
Telecom network optimization starts with network design and planning and extends into network operations and maintenance as an ongoing optimization process. Network optimization helps release capacity from existing assets whilst raising performance standards that are recognized by customers. In short, network optimization delivers enhanced customer experience and a lower cost of operations.
Innovile’s market-leading RAN telecom network configuration management system INNSPIRE delivers outstanding live network provisioning results based on accurate, complete, and up-to-date network information. Our INNTELLIGENT SON automates much of the optimization effort towards zero-touch status.
Mobile network performance optimization is the continuous process of analyzing network data to determine and implement performance improvements. Constant incremental network tuning improves network quality and releases greater value from assets deployed. Network performance optimization improves customer experience and loyalty, reduces operations costs, and eliminates unnecessary asset procurement.
A Network Management System is a software layer of a telecoms network that interfaces to network elements enabling their configuration and operation. A telecoms NMS reduces the need for disparate management interfaces, reducing complexity and costs.
Innovile’s range of software includes Self-Organizing Networks, Configuration, Fault and Performance Management; our Zero-touch Network NMS.