Motorola’s self-aware network

Motorola (NYSE:MOT) is tackling the problem of network planning in 4G, announcing today a self-organizing network (SON) software tool that takes the heavy lifting out reconfiguring a network after every new cell site installation.

The SON solution does what it normally takes a team of RF planners and engineers to accomplish, said Fred Wright, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola’s cellular and WiMax networks group. When capacity is needed in the network, the platform’s planning tools can determine the optimal placement for new cells, and once those cells are placed, the software will automatically configure the new and old radios for the new network layout, Wright said.

“It optimizes the whole radio layer,” Wright said. “The application does frequency planning and analysis and then makes the appropriate changes in the network.” When a carrier wants to add coverage, it can’t just drop a new cell site into the footprint and turn it on. A single new site has to sit in relation to dozens of cell sites around it, Wright said, and each new cell addition requires a reworking of not only the cell radii but the handoff parameters and routing tables of every site in the area. The SON eliminates the majority of that optimization work by automatically detecting its neighboring cells. It then applies advanced algorithms to recalculate the new optimal radio parameters of itself and surrounding sites and then configure them accordingly. The system even auto-detects and configures its own backhaul and connections to the network core.

Self-configuration is part of the 3GPP’s UMTS release 8 standard, which includes long-term evolution (LTE), and Motorola is releasing the product with its upcoming LTE portfolio. But Wright said its SON solution goes far beyond the specifications in the standard, drawing upon Motorola’s years of research and development in the network autonomics field. The first base station to come with the software will be its WBR 500 eNodeB, unveiled at Mobile World Congress this year and demoed at CTIA Wireless. The first of its LTE base stations uses remote radio heads, but Motorola plans to develop two other versions: a macro unit with radios and baseband in a single cabinet and a kit similar to its compact WiMax system with all active electronics mounted near the antennas.