Nokia, Coriant claim first mobile backhaul SON solution

Finnish kit vendor and optical networking specialist Coriant have announced what they claimed is the first ever solution brining self-organising network (SON) technology to mobile backhaul. Nokia claimed the solution offers the same level of functionality but with 20% less transport infrastructure than in current networks.

The solution combines advanced analytics and software defined networking (SDN), and according to Nokia it reconfigures network resources based on analysis of the factors impacting customer experience and service level agreements. The vendor claimed the technology reverses the traditional order where services have to adapt to the networks.

“Coriant’s innovation in SDN is leading the revolution to programmable, service-aware data-optical networks,” Paul Smelters, VP of Data Networks at Coriant said. “Through this joint programme with Nokia Networks, Coriant is showing how it is enabling services as the driver of programmable mobile backhaul and fixed-mobile converged networks.”

Nokia said the technology’s proof of concept outlines the solution as creating a programmable, self-aware mobile backhaul network, which monitors user and control plane traffic as well as network quality. “This proof of concept is the first of its kind to provide a fully automated capability for self-configuration and self-optimisation of multi-vendor mobile backhaul networks using SDN as the management layer,” Hossein Moiin, Executive VP and CTO at Nokia Networks said.

“It is a major step towards teaching networks to be self-aware and realising our Technology Vision 2020. It also reduces total cost of transmitting each bit by making transport networks intelligent enough to take network planning and daily operational decisions in the most cost-effective way on their own.”

The solution, which on top of Nokia’s SON technology and Coriant’s SDN controller consists of the Coriant 8600 Smart Routers, Nokia LTE base-stations and System Architecture Evolution (SAE) gateway, will be demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona.