SON is basically an automation technology designed to make the planning, configuration, management, optimization and healing of mobile radio access networks simpler and faster. Recently, this technology is been proposed for backhaul systems where the combination with software-defined networking (SDN) controllers, helps operators achieve an optimal and efficient network configuration and avoid failures introduced by human interaction. However, there is another concept also known as Self-backhauling where a macro base station provides backhaul to small cells via the existing macro RAN and some of the benefits also highlighted from self-backhauling include: reduction in the cost of deploying and maintaining of the backhaul networks, minimal onsite installation effort and leverages existing mobile network management and control (e.g. Radio Resource Management, Security Management, Fault Management etc.).
Can these two terms be used interchangeably? Do they mean same thing or they are different?
Your expertise and help will be appreciated.
Thank you.
SON techniques during the deployment phase of the backhaul network are compelling, substantial cost savings can be made and additional use cases of SON for assurance, optimization and maintenance also highlight areas where operators can create a balance between cost and efficiency.
I think the subjects of self organized peer to peer networks and self backhaul are, you know, orthogonal. RFC 4981
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4981.txt
is a dated but still very good overview of the subject of SONs, and you can see that they are certainly not all wireless! So right away, that implies that using SONs for wireless backhaul does not cover the ground completely.
On the subject of self backhaul specifically, I'm sure that different solutions can be used, depending on the exact problem to be solved. One issue I have with using macrocells for backhaul of small cells, like femtocells, is that this may defeat the purpose of those femtocells. One of the frequently stated goals of femtocells is to take the load off macrocells, in congested environments. So how does it make sense to load the femtocell traffic back onto the macrocell?
The solution makes sense sometimes, such as in cases where the macrocell coverage is inadequate due to obstacles, but not in cases where femtocells are required to achieve better spectral reuse, to support very high concentration of users.
Best of luck on this research. Very important and timely topic.
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