NGSON: features, state of the art, and realization

There have been several efforts to provide service-aware technologies in the networks, such as the service-oriented architecture and service delivery platform. These technologies were integrated with service overlay network (SON) infrastructure to support control and delivery of services over multiple network domains. However, SON has limitations in handling the increasing needs of a ubiquitous and dynamic environment of users and services. To provide better quality of experience to users in this ubiquitous and dynamic environment, next-generation SON (NGSON) was introduced to support context-aware, dynamically adaptive, and selforganizing capabilities in SON. In this article, we present an overall description of the concept of NGSON, and provide a comprehensive review of the recent standardization activities related to NGSON. By visiting our experiences in designing and developing a prototype for NGSON, the challenges and opportunities of NGSON are described.