RAN Performance Alarms for Low-Latency SON Issue Detection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing cellular network performance optimization systems face latency issues due to repeated processing of performance metrics at each hop enroute to the Self-Organizing Network (SON) server, and transient issues may not be addressed in time by current methods.

Innovation Solution

Implementing performance alarms that directly notify the SON server of network performance issues, allowing for reduced latency in issue detection and enabling immediate mitigation actions without the need for extensive metric analysis.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If performance metrics are repeatedly processed at each hop enroute to the SON server, then comprehensive network performance analysis is achieved, but latency in identifying and addressing performance issues increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenetwork performance analysis accuracyVSAvoidlatency in issue detection
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the essential performance issue information from comprehensive performance metrics at the network element level, creating a simplified performance alarm that contains only the critical issue identification. This extracted alarm is then sent directly to the SON server, eliminating the need for repeated processing of full metrics at each hop while maintaining the ability to identify and address performance issues timely.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Measurement precision

If comprehensive performance metrics are analyzed at each network element hop, then accurate performance assessment is achieved, but the complexity of the system increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveperformance assessment accuracyVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the performance monitoring function into two parts: (1) local performance alarm generation at network elements based on simple threshold checks of performance metrics, and (2) centralized alarm management and mitigation action determination at the SON server. This segmentation reduces the processing complexity at each hop while maintaining overall assessment accuracy through the distributed architecture.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Loss of time

If performance alarms are implemented to directly notify the SON server, then latency in issue detection is reduced, but the amount of information transmitted may be insufficient for comprehensive analysis

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvelatency in issue detectionVSAvoidperformance metric details
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of timeVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary filtering and identification of performance issues at the network element level before sending alarms to the SON server. The performance alarms contain pre-identified issue information that allows the SON server to immediately understand the nature of the problem and determine appropriate mitigation actions without needing to perform comprehensive metric analysis, thus reducing latency while preserving essential information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4708951A1Cellular network performance optimization for network elements
Publication Date: 2026.03.11 NOKIA SOLUTIONS & NETWORKS OY
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AI summary

Techniques for optimizing cellular network performance of network elements of a Radio Access Network (RAN) are disclosed. In operation, Performance Metrics (PM) corresponding to a network element of the RAN are monitored, where the PM comprises a plurality of network performance indicators indicative of cellular network performance of the network element. It is then determined that a first network performance indicator from amongst the plurality of network performance indicators is meeting a predetermined condition. A performance alarm is then transmitted to a Self-Organizing Network (SON) server, where the performance alarm is indicative of at least one issue corresponding to the cellular network performance of the network element.