Customer experience driven Self-Organizing Network: Assuring that network management is aligned with business goals

Most mobile operators are planning or have already begun the transition towards 4G networks. Apart from improving the robustness of the network, operators want to employ a much higher level of automation in network management. This aspect is to be addressed by the employment of the Self-Organizing Network (SON) concept. What is challenging however is how to assure that automation is driven by the right criterion which is customer experience. This requires redefining what is network robustness and reliability. Using just technical metrics is not sufficient enough; the ability to map these terms in customer experience is the key to success on a very competitive market.