Finnish kit vendor Nokia Networks has moved to strengthen its SON (self-organising networks) portfolio with the acquisition of US multi-vendor SON outfit Eden Rock.

Eden Rock’s main product is Eden-NET, which it describes as “the industry’s leading centralized, multi-vendor, multi-technology SON solution.” SON technology increases the level of automation of network tasks such as reporting, maintenance and optimization. Nokia will add Eden-NET to its existing SON offering.

“The size of the optimization and SON market is expected to exceed €5 billion globally by 2018,” said Peter Patomella, VP of CEM and OSS at Nokia Networks. “With this combination of capabilities, we will effectively address a key customer pain point – automated optimization of heterogenous networks in a multivendor environment. By combining our products into one, we will accelerate the delivery of a compelling solution for this problem and provide best-in-class network performance and customer experience.”

“A massive appetite exists among operators for a proven SON solution with disruptive technologies, open framework and carrier-class capabilities,” said Charles Immendorf, CEO of Eden Rock. “Via this acquisition, Nokia Networks brings SON functionality that is complementary to our Eden-NET solution, a renowned reputation for wireless excellence and an ascending market presence. We will be honoured to serve under the Nokia banner and aim to establish an insurmountable lead within the SON space.”

Meanwhile the telco M&A spree continues as HP adds to its burgeoning NFV offering with the acquisition of ConteXtream,  “a provider of OpenDaylight-based, carrier-grade SDN fabric for NFV, and a current HP OpenNFV partner,” and Fortinet grabs Meru Networks to boost its enterprise secure wifi proposition.