A unified framework for self-healing in wireless networks

Future wireless networks will be Heterogeneous Networks (HetNet), as they will comprise multiple Radio Access Technologies (RAT) and network architectures. The complexity of managing and operating such networks is forcing operators to find new strategies if they want to remain competitive. In this context, Self-Organizing Networks (SON) have arisen as one of the key technologies for enhancing operation and minimizing costs in future networks. SON functionalities can be classified as self-configuration, self-optimization, and self-healing. Although the first two categories have received considerable attention in the last years, the studies devoted to self-healing have been scarce. In addition, existing references use different terminology and concepts and they focus only on partial aspects of self-healing for a particular RAT. This article unifies previous research and proposes a reference model for self-healing in which terms and functions are unambiguously defined. In addition, this article presents a survey on the state of the art, in which the main references on self-healing are outlined. Finally, the main research challenges in self-healing that will have to be faced in the near future are summarized.